saint thomas aquinas - opscriptis · saint thomasaquinas oftheorderofpreachers ......

ST. MICHAEL'S COLLEGETORONTO, CANADA

LIBRARY

PRESENTED BY

Rev. Declan E. Foley, M.D.

THE FRIAR SAINTS SERIES

Editors for the Franciscan Lives

The Very Rev. Fr. Osmund, O.F.M., Provincial, and C. M. Antony

Editors for the Dominican Lives

The Rev. Fr. Bede Jarrett, O.P., and C. M. Antony

ST. THOMAS AQUINAS

"DIVUS THOMAS QUEM DISCIPULUS E VIVO EXPRESSIT"FROM PORTRAIT NOW IN COLLEGIO INGELICO, ROME,

BY UNKNOWN ARTIST, ALMOST CONTEMPORARY.

SAINTTHOMAS AQUINAS

OF THE ORDER OF PREACHERS

(1225-1274)

A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY OF THEANGELIC DOCTOR

BY

Fr, PLACID CONWAY, O.R

*MK

WITH FIVE ILLUSTRATIONS

LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO.

39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDONNEW YORK, BOMBAY AND CALCUTTA

191 1

PREFATORY NOTICE.

The first two volumes of the " Friar Saints"

Series now published will be followed at short

intervals by four more "Lives," two at a time,

Dominican and Franciscan together. Should

the first six" Lives "

prove successful they

will be followed by a second set of six.

The order of publication will probably be as

follows :—

Dominican .

(i) St. Thomas Aquinas.By Fr. Placid Con-way, O. P.

(2) St. Vincent Ferrer.

By Fr. StanislausHogan, O.P.

(3) St. Pius V. By C. M.Antony.

Franciscan.

(1) St. Bonaventure.Fr. Laurencetelloe, O.F.M.

ByCos-

(2) St. Antony of Padua.By C. M. Antony.

(3) St. John Capistran.By Fr. Vincent Fitz-

Gerald, O.F.M.

(4) St. Antoninus ofFlorence. By Fr.

Bede Jarrbtt, O.P.

(4) St. Bernardine ofSiena. By Miss M.Ward.

vi PREFATORY NOTICE.

Dominican. Franciscan.

(5) St. Raymond of Penna (5) St. Leonard of Port-fort. By Fr. Thomas Maurice. By Fr.

SCHWERTNER, O.P. ALEXANDER MURPHY.O.F.M.

(6) St. Louis Bertrand. (6) St. Peter of Alcantara.

By the Rev. Mother By Fr. EgbertMary Reginald, Carrol, O.F.M.O.S.D.

The "Friar Saints" Series, which has

received the warm approval of the authorities

of both Orders in England, Ireland, and

America, is earnestly recommended to Ter-

tiaries, and to the Catholic public generally.

The Master-General of the Dominicans, at

Rome, sending his blessing to the writers and

readers of the "Friar Saints" Series, says:" The Lives should teach their readers not

only to know the Saints, but also to imitate

them ".

The Minister-General of the Franciscans,

Fr. Denis Schuler, sends his blessing and best

wishes for the success of the "Lives of the

Friar Saints ".

F. OSMUND, O.F.M., Provincial,

F. BEDE JARRETT, O.P.,

C. M. ANTONY,Editors.

PREFACE.

"God is wonderful in His saints" (Ps. lxvii.

36). A saint's life is one of God's most

wonderful products, because it is the develop-

ment of the Divine life within the natural

man, and in no common measure.

Saintliness is the heroism of goodness, or

holiness risen to perfection, making its sub-

ject to be within and without a man of God.

But besides the common perfection which

comes of grace, there is stamped on each of

God's servants some special feature of the

Divine attributes, and this forms the geniusof the individual. In St. Thomas Aquinasit is Divine Truth which shines forth within

and without, in the lustre of learning and

teaching, so that the words of the Psalmist

are verified in his life :

" Thou hast laid bare

to me the deep and hidden things of ThyWisdom" (Ps. L. 7). He was the hive of

the world's honey of all ages.vii

BQ „

c7

viii PREFACE.

Years are but as a day with God, hence,

a gracious life may be presented for our

contemplation as He evolved it, in its periods

of Morn, and Noon, and Evening, followed

by the Night, when after toil it passed into

glory. This memoir is based on the accounts

left by two of the saint's brethren, once his

disciples, William de Tocco and Ptolomeo

de Lucca, who to their personal witness added

the Reports of the Commissions held by three

Cardinals in Rome, and by the Archbishopsof Naples and Capua, and the Bishop of

Viterbo in their respective dioceses, on the

holy doctor's decease. Further details have

been gleaned from the pages of Pere Touron,

"Vie de Saint Thomas d'Aquin," issued in

quarto in 174.1 ;also from materials supplied

in the life of Blessed Albert, who was the

saint's chief teacher.

Such a biography is especially opportunein our day, on the revival of scholastic learning

in the domains of Philosophy and Theology,of which St. Thomas was the highest ex-

ponent, while he stands supreme as the patronof the Christian Schools.

CONTENTS.

PART I: MORN.CHAP. PAOE

I. His Birth and Early Education . . i

II. Vocation and Trials 13

PART II: NOON.

III. He Studies at Cologne, and Paris : His

Bachelorship and Priesthood . . 23

IV. He Graduates as Doctor .... 39

V. First Period of His Writings: His Systemand Method of Study .... 45

PART III: EVENING.

VI. Second Period of His Writings . . 62

VII. His Heroic Sanctity 76

VIII. Third Period of His Writings : His Death 90

PART IV: THE NIGHT OF REST.

IX. His Miracles, and Canonization . . 103

X. Translations of His Relics . . . 111

Epilogue. Commendations of His Doctrine . 115

Concise Bibliography 118

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS." Divus Thomas Quem Discipulus e

vivo expressit " .... Frontispiece

From a Portrait now in Collegio AngtHco,Rome, by unknown artist, almost con-temporary.

"St. Thomas as Justice." Roof-medal-lion from Orcagna's

"Triumph of St.

Thomas "in the Strozzi Chapel, Church

of Sta Maria Novella, Florence . . To face p. 20

From a Photograph by Alinari.

St. Thomas Aquinas. Lunette Fresco in

Cloister of San Marco, Florence, by Fra

Angelico da Fiesole .... „ 76

From a Photograph by A linari.

Altar-piece by Guercino, in the Chapel

of St. Thomas Aquinas, Church of St.

Dominic, Bologna „ 102

From a Photograph by Aliuari.

Body of St. Thomas Aquinas (in chasse

above Altar) removedfrom Dominican

Church at the Revolution to the Chapel

of the Holy Ghost, Church of St. Sernin,

Toulouse ,, 112

From a Photograph.

The Holy Father has expressed his great pleasure

and satisfaction that the " Friar Saints"Series has

been undertaken ; and wishes it every success.

He bestows "most affectionately" His Apostolic

Blessing upon the Editors, Writers, and Readers

of the whole Series.

PART I. : MORN.

CHAPTER I.

BIRTH AND EARLY EDUCATION.

The noble Aquino family could boast of a descent

through four centuries from the Lombard Princes,

besides being allied with the Sovereign houses of

Europe in the thirteenth century. The familyname was a territorial one, which in Latin and

French idioms of speech appears as Aquinas and

d'Aquin. St. Thomas was born in the Castle of

Rocca Secca, perched high in the mountains, some

seven miles from Aquino which lies in the plain

below, in the Campagna Felice of the Kingdom of

Naples. He first saw the light in the opening daysof the year 1225, less than four years from the death

of St. Dominic. Landulf, his father, was nephewto the Emperor Frederick I

;he belonged to the

noble house of Sommacoli, and was Count of

Aquino, Lord of Loreto, Acerra, and Belcastro.-

His mother, Theodora Carraciola, Countess of

Teano in her own right, was sprung from the Nor-

man Princes. St. Thomas, their third son, was

2 ST. THOMAS AQUINAS.

cousin to the Emperors Henry VI and Frederick II,

and closely allied to the Kings of Aragon, Castile,

and France;while on his grandmother's side he

could trace descent from England's Saxon Kings.

For godfather he had Pope Honorius III, the

Pontiff who confirmed the Order of Preachers, of

which the child was destined to be the brightest

luminary. The Aquinos were a military race, so

Landulf gave to his third son a name already

famous in arms, Thomas, in memory of his own

father, who had been Captain-General of the Im-

perial forces ; little did he dream then that the

boy would be a soldier of Christ, wielding the

sword of Truth, and an undying leader of intel-

lectual hosts.

The future holiness of the unborn babe was

disclosed to his mother by a holy hermit of the

neighbourhood, known simply as Buono, or God's

good man. Clad in a rough garment, and with

hair unkempt, he presented himself at Rocca Secca,

and pointing to a picture of the holy patriarch

St. Dominic, who was not yet canonized, he thus

addressed the Countess :

"Lady, be glad, for thou

art about to have a son whom thou shalt call

Thomas. Thou and thy husband will think of

making him a monk in the Abbey of Monte Cas-

sino, where St. Benedict's body reposes, in the

hopes that your son will attain to its honours and

wealth. But God has disposed otherwise, because

he will become a friar of the Order of Preachers,

and so great will be his learning and sanctity that

BIRTH AND EARLY EDUCATION. 3

his equal will not be found through the whole

world." Theodora listened with awe to the pre-

sage, then, falling upon her knees, exclaimed :

"I

am all unworthy of bearing such a son, but, God's

will be done according to His good pleasure ".

In due time the child was baptized under the

name of Thomas, which signifies Abyss, while the

Bishop of Aquino stood as proxy for the Sovereign

Pontiff. In God's deep counsels a name imposedoften stands prophetic of destiny : so was it in this

instance, for in after days"the abyss put forth its

voice" (Habacuc in. 10). From the hour of the

prophetic telling, Thomas was the fruit of her soul

by prayer as of a mother's womb by nature. Aspecial providence watched over him during in-

fancy. One night in June, 12 28, a lightning stroke

smote the tower in which the child of grace lay

sleeping beside his nurse : in agony of mind the

alarmed mother ran to the spot, to find him un-

harmed, while her little daughter lay dead and

charred, and the horses in the stables beneath were

killed. This occurrence left in him a life-long nerv-

ousness and dread of storms, which he could never

allay. In consequence of this, in later years in a

subterranean cave at Anagni, he traced upon the

walls in capital letters this distich in fashion of a

cross :—

Crux. Mihi. Certa. Salus.

Crux. Est. Quam. Semper. Adoro.

Crux. Domini. Mecum.Crux. Mihi. Refugium.


The Cross is my sure safety.

It is the Cross that I ever adore.

The Lord's Cross is with me.

The Cross is my refuge.1

Thomas was a gentle child, with deep lustrous

eyes and thoughtful expression of countenance, in

whom piety appeared as a Divine gift of nature,

an inborn sense of soul. His earliest turnings of

mind and heart were to God, so that even in the

dawn of his day he was spoken of as a child of

grace. Free from the wonted petulance of child-

hood, he showed little of its giddiness, still he was

always cheerful and of modest demeanour. Heloved to gaze with eyes of wonder on the illumin-

ated pages of missals or scripts which he was in-

capable of understanding, while the stillness of the

chapel with its solitary light exercised a fascination

on his tender mind. Gentle and fleeting as a

Spring shower are the tears of childhood. If at

any time they fell from his sunny face, the sight of

a book or manuscript would always comfort him :

it was his toy, his plaything, and to turn the pagesever and again was his little world of joy ; clearly

rhjprhilrl \y^ fcth^rnf^thr* man., There is some-

thing startling, even eerie, in a child's piety, in its

innocence, unconscious of guile, in its human faith

of trust, its first turnings upwards : like the turning

of the flower to the sun is a child's soul stirred and

drawn heavenwards. When the Psalmist broke

1 An Indulgence of 300 days is attached to its recital.


out in rhapsody :"Thy magnificence, O Lord, is

elevated above the heavens," he instantly turns to

the thought of the child :

" Out of the mouths of in-

fants and of sucklings Thou hast perfected praise"

(Ps. viii. 2, 3).All this we have to realize in the

childhood of St. Thomas, whose young virgin soul ,

like some clear pool, reflected the Creator's image.

As the first years drew on, he, like another Holy

Child in Nazareth, grew in spiritual beauty before

God and men. His angelic comeliness and sweet-

ness of disposition increased, so that he charmed

irresistibly all with whom he came in contact.

The first parting with home came in the autumn

of 1 23 1, when he was but six and a half years old.

Six miles away to the south stands the venerable

Abbey of Monte Cassino on a high plateau, and

visible from Aquino and Rocca Secca. This an-

cient home of learning and piety was the school

in which Count Landulf placed his boy, not in

the cloister, but in the school for youths of gentle

birth, since the old time custom of placing chil-

dren in the cloister was extinct by papal mandate

quite a century before. The monks of St. Benedict

were deeply beholden to the Aquinos, who had

defended their sanctuary against Roger, King of

Sicily : at this very time the Lord Abbot, the

fiftieth in line, was the young scholar's uncle,

Landulf Sennebald. There the boy spent five

years under the tutelage of those God-fearing men,

but attended by his family tutor or governor, while

the rare gifts of mind and soul expanded. It was

\


not an unbroken stay in the abbey, for when the

holidays came round, he rode to Loreto or Bel-

castro to regain his family circle. During his stayin the school he learnt the common elements of a

child's education, how to speak and write correctly

his native Italian tongue, also the rudiments of

Latin and French : to this would naturally be

added the religious catechism suited to his tender

years, and the school discipline of obedience. The

memory of his residence there was long treasured

up, and rehearsed in after days by the monks, wholoved to speak of the precocious mind which wouldmuse on Divine problems, and put such questionsas these: "What is God? How can we knowGod ? What is Truth ?

"Anything savouring of

levity or carelessness was never seen in him : how-ever amiable he was towards his young companion 3

or ready to pay them a service, he was slow to joinin their boyish chatter, slower still at joining in

their games. His refining influence made itself

felt among them, but the companionship he prizedmost was a book, and his favourite retreat the

church. The atmosphere of the quiet cloistered

precincts was a congenial one: it nurtured his

observant powers, and formed the silent thinker,

the< prayerful spirit, who spoke so deeply in ma-

turer years.

Mid-way between his eleventh and twelfth years

came the violent transition which so often mars

characters of promise. The shy boy, with those

round ox-like eyes set deep and clear, must pass


from peace to tumult, from private to public schools,

and to streets often mad with revelry. What the

school begins, the University completes, with its

fuller range of sciences, its vaster auditory, its skilled

professors : so, acting on the advice of Abbot Sene-

bald, the boy passes the threshold of a Catholic

University. The choice lay between two such seats

of learning, far-away Bologna of long-standing emi-

nence, and its younger rival, Naples, which was

close to hand. A law of the Emperor Frederick II,

its founder, forbade his subjects to study elsewhere

than in Naples, so Count Landulf's choice was re-

duced to one of compliance. During this summer's

holiday time, which was spent at Loreto, Thomasbusied himself in visiting the needy and relieving

their wants, especially since famine was pressing

severely on the country. Not content with carry-

ing constantly the common necessaries of life, he

often brought to them the delicacies meant for his

own use. Such generosity being reported in an

unfavourable light to his father, the Count resolved

on curbing his actions, if not his compassion. One

morning as the boy was speeding forth on his errand

of mercy, with a supply of white bread under his

cloak, Landulf stayed his steps, and demanded to

be shown what he was carrying away. Crimsoned

with confusion, Thomas was about to explain, whenthe father roughly plucked the cloak aside, and an

armful of fragrant rqses fell at his feet. The father

saw the hand of God in the act, for he had been

stealthily watching the tender culprit, then he strode


hastily away in tears ; long he pondered over the

reports which had reached his willing ears, of the

glowing halo seen at times round the mysterious

boy's head.

It was in the autumn of 1236 that Thomas

Aquinas entered Naples University. He had his

own residence and retinue, but continued under

the vigilant eye of the same governor as when at

Monte Cassino, who now acted as his good angel

in the city so aptly described as—" a very paradise

of God, but inhabited by demons ". Knowledgeof evil is not of itself evil, else the angels would not

be clean : so the boy's clear perception of worldli-

ness and flaunted vice served only to foster his

spirit of reserve, of communing with God, while,

like Daniel in Babylon, he prayed to be kept clean.

Making the Psalmist's speech his own, he made

daily use of these brief prayers :—" Prove me, Lord,

and try me. Lord, let Thy face shine upon Thy

servant, teach me Thy ways of holiness. Guide my

steps according to Thy behest, that no iniquity maytake hold of me." Lodged according to his rank,

he often rodle round the fair bay of Naples, past the

glowing splendour or frequent fury of Vesuvius,

images to him of heaven and of hell, to gaze on

the sites of cities long buried, Pompeii, and Hercu-

laneum, or else crossing the waters, to behold the

wonders of the blue grottoes of Capri. Nowhere

else is Nature garbed in richer array, but it cried to

him only of God, while his soul found response in

the exclamation of Augustine of Hippo :

" If the

BIRTH AND EARLY EDUCATION. g

works of His hands be so lovely, how much more

beautiful must He be Who made them !

" The

words of the Creator's approval kept recurring in

memory :

" And He saw that they were good ".

What holds the natural man to earth, uplifts the

spiritual man heavenwards ; so in his ripening youth

he was fired with the poetry of Nature, but as a

Divine song.

During the seven years of his stay, as the boy

grew into the man of uncommon stature in bodyand intellect, he studied to good purpose under

men of eminence. He pursued the course of

studies which was common to all Universities of

the time. During four years he passed through the

Trivium, under the distinguished Pietro Martini :

this comprised grammar,1logic and rhetoric, which

he completed when fourteen and a half years old.

The higher studies of the Quadrivium, a three years'

course, embracing music, mathematics, geometry,

and astronomy, he pursued under a professor of

note, Peter from Ireland. There can be no doubt

of the fact that our saintly scholar graduated in

both courses, which covered the whole range of

the classics, logic, and physics. Both masters

held him in high esteem, and constantly pointedhim out as a pattern of industry. A singularly re-

tentive memory and sense of logic enabled him to

repeat the lesson more deeply and lucidly than the

professors had given it, so that the scholars came

1 The study of the poets, the historians, and the art of

speaking and writing properly.

io ST. THOMAS AQUINAS.

to regard him as a miracle of holiness and learn-

ing, an angel in the schools, though not yet" The

Angel of the Schools ". Such talent left him muchleisure time, yet without idleness, for it was all

given to assimilating knowledge by method and

discipline.

Man's soul is simple in its nature, but very com-

plex in its workings, especially when acting through

the senses. The Pars Superior is the soul un-

trammelled in its purely spiritual workings of un-

derstanding or volition, regarding things which are

beyond Nature's horizon. At its greatest altitude

it rises up to the Divine. The Pars Inferior is the

same spirit working through the senses. As Aris

totle observes, and the Schoolmen agree," there is

nothing in the understanding except it first come

under the senses"

: from this common rule one

must exclude first principles, which all mankind

instantly accepts because of their self-evidence.

Education is nothing else than the drawing out

of these parts with their latent powers, even as

Nature's secret forces can be drawn forth by attrac-

tion : thus while the powers are sharpened, their

store of accretions is termed knowledge. Now all

this economy of the mind was grasped by the

youthful Aquinas, and brought to bear on his

threefold plan of self-education. Endowed with

genius of intellect, as the eagle soaring above the

commoner birds of the air, he first carefully scanned,

then boldly swept across the intellectual horizon.

His first field of education was Divine. God was

BIRTH AND EARLY EDUCATION. n

his centre of gravity, to which he ever inclined, his

highest zone of speculative thought, his fountain-

head of spirituality in mind and heart. Such edu-

cation is productive of sanctity, because it is seek-

ing and finding, feeding upon and assimilating

Divine Truth, not as from afar, but by union of

intimacy with Him Who is Truth. If the child

queried—What is Truth? and What is God?

the youth answered his own query :" God is

Truth, and all truth is of God ". Such pursuit of

highest truth produces wisdom, of which, as of

compassion, he could say :

"It grew with me from

infancy" (Job xxxi. 18). "Wisdom led the just

man along righteous ways, showed him God's king-

dom, and imparted to him the knowledge of holy

things"(Wis. x. 10). Thomas was a theologian

in potency as one wedded to Divine Wisdom.

His second domain of industry in learning was

among men. In the writings left of the ancients,

he found thought distributed among the poets,

the orators, the philosophers : these he read stu-

diously now, and stored them up in the cells of

memory. Most of them he read but once in a

lifetime, and that was at this very period : of course

all Thomist students are quite aware of the great

exception with regard to Aristotle's works, for these

were constantly at his elbow. All.is_.true. subjec-

tively in the writings of those men of old-time fame,

that is, if judged from their standpoint, and accord-

ing to the schools they represented : much therein

is true also objectively, and elevating even from


our Christian coign of vantage. But the question

with the solid thinker is—where precisely to fix his

standpoint. In first principles all men are agreed,

with few dissentients, such as sceptics, and even

these postulate some one first principle : the part-

ing of the ways comes where Revelation steps in,

uplifting and guiding Reason. From Aristotle

to St. Thomas, philosophy made no sensible pro-

gress, but rather the reverse: but when the saint

Christianized the Stagyrite, and brought his writ-

ings into line with Revelation, then the thoughts of

men reverted to the past, and grew vigorous in

consequence. Such was the scholastic revival of

the thirteenth century, devised by this vigorous

young thinker in Naples.

His third field of self-culture was Nature, whose

open page all men read, and so few understand.

He was a careful observer of Nature's laws, of

matter, and force, and forms, and causalities : but

while turning to Nature he was no slavish empiri-

cist, as will be seen later on. With him, mentality

ever held the first place. Above all things he was

consistent, because consistency comes of an evenly

balanced mind : the Eclecticism of past and present

teachers he would certainly have ascribed to the

inconsistency of illogical minds, resulting in a

perversion of order, and stultifying of principles. In

Naples this youth had assimilated from his reading

all that Cicero has comprised in his definition of

Philosophy :

" The knowledge of things Divine and

human and of their disposing causes ".

VOCATION AND TRIALS. 13

CHAPTER II.

VOCATION AND TRIALS.

Having seen the scholar in his morn of toil, let us

now turn to the youth aspiring to the Religious

state : bent on rising to spiritual perfection accord-

ing to grace, he naturally sought out and embraced

the state which is conducive to such perfection.

The germ of a vocation to the Religious life, and

to the Dominican form of such life in particular,

fell early upon his eager soul, where it germinated

through nine years before blossoming into reality

of fulfilment. When but nine and a half years old

he witnessed a spectacle at Monte Cassino which

entered deeply into his soul : it was the solemnity

of St. Dominic's canonization Mass, granted on 13

July, and kept on 5 August, 1234, the exaltation

of that Dominic who so recently had been the

" Doctor of Truth and Preacher of Grace," the

story of whose life was fresh on men's lips. There

is a spiritual affinity in saintship, so the spirit of

the child went out to the man of God who was

soon to call him son. In the Dominican church at

Naples, Thomas was often seen absorbed in prayer,

while spreading rays of light shone from his head.

The friars were well aware of it, so that, after

witnessing the marvel for the third time, Fr. Johnof St. Julien said to him :

" Our Lord has given

you to our Order ". Ripening intimacy begot

resolve. When he was but fifteen and a half years

2 *

i 4 -ST. THOMAS AQUINAS.

of age, on the completion of his Trivium, he

declared to the Prior of San Domenico that for

some time he had ardently desired to give himself

to the Order. On bended knees he made his

humble suit and protestation: "But I am not

worthy, and is not my age an obstacle ?"

Fr.

Thomas d'Agni di Lentino, the Prior, and Fr. Johnof St. Julien, a famous preacher, bade him foster

the grace of a vocation, but advised him to wait for

three more years. This he accordingly did. When

J

eighteen and a half years of age, he was clothed in

the holy habit as a Friar Preacher, in August, 1243,

probably on St. Dominic's feast-day, which was then

kept on the 5 th. It was a momentous step, a

memorable occasion, for the ceremony was carried

out before a distinguished assembly. Not a word

** was spoken to parents or to others of his design :

he had learnt his lesson from a saying of Tobias :

"It is a good thing to hide the King's secret

"

(xn. 7). From that happy hour until death his

conduct might be expressed in the language of St.

Paul : "Forgetting the things that are behind, and

stretching forth myself to those that are before, I

pursue towards the mark, for the prize of the

heavenly vocation of God in Christ Jesus"

(Phil,

in. 13, 14).

Soon the tidings reached Rocca Secca that

Thomas had entered the cloister of the Preach-

ing Friars, which evoked a storm of indignation.

His mother was especially angered, not because he

had chosen to quit the world, but at the unpardon-


able affront of the scion of a princely house donning -

the garb of a mendicant friar. Complaints were

addressed to the Pope and to the Archbishop of

Naples, while loud were the menaces uttered against

the Father-General and the Prior, and these were

caught up by the common herd in the street : as

for the monks of the two Benedictine communities

in Naples and their brethren of Monte Cassino, they

made no protest, advanced no plea, since it was no

concern of theirs, nor did they move or speak at

his profession two years later. Theodora d'Aquinowas a woman of resolute spirit, now thoroughly

roused : hermits may prophesy, that is their busi-

ness, but the settlement of a son is a domestic affair,

largely a woman's affair, if she can but have her

way. But no sooner did she perceive that noise

and fury would not prevail, than she set out for

Naples with masked batteries of tears and en-

treaties, to induce him to return home. One thing

she overlooked in her gage of battle, and that was

that her son was also an Aquino, a man of like

determined character, though of calmer mood.

Directly Thomas heard of her setting out, he took

the by-road to Rome, and entered the Convent of

Santa Sabina, St. Dominic's former home on the

Aventine. Thither the eager mother pursued him.

Strong in his sense of fidelity to a Divine call,

Thomas refused even to see her when she clam-

oured in the porch." Whoever loves father or

mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me "

(Matt. x. 37). What his sentiments were then he


subsequently wrote in his "Summa Theologica"

(Ila Woe Quest. CIX, article 4), when treating of

piety, or duty towards parents. The article is

entitled—" Whether Duties towards Parents Are ToBe Set Aside for the Sake of Religion ". Theanswer is a distinct negative, but admitting of one

saving exception, which he exposes in the following

terms :—

"If reverence for parents withdraws us from

God's worship, then we must not stand by duty to

parents against God. Accordingly St. Jerome says

in his Letter to Heliodorus, towards the opening :

'

Set father aside, treading upon him, set mother

aside, treading upon her, with dry eyes fly to the

standard of the Cross : to be cruel in such a matter

is the height of piety '. Consequently, in such an

issue, the duties of filial piety must be set aside for

the sake of the Divine worship of religion. But if

by rendering due reverence to parents we are not

withdrawn from God's worship, then it will be a

part of piety, and so it will not be necessary to drop

piety for the sake of religion."

While the Countess made Rome ring with her

complaints and threats, the heroic novice hurried

off northwards to Paris. Straightway Theodora

vowed to capture and hold the runaway : a mounted

courier was speedily dispatched to her elder sons,

Landulf and Raynald, who then commanded the

Emperor's forces in Tuscany, bidding them to seize

him vi et armis. Thomas was resting by a spring

with two friars, close to the little town of Acqua-


pendente, between Sienna and Lake Bolsena, when

a troop of horse surprised him. His brothers reviled

him for his undutiful behaviour, then bade him

put off his habit and return home. Raynald laid

violent hands upon him and tried to tear it from his

shoulders, but to no purpose, so the brothers led

him back to Rocca Secca. Since his resolution

was not to be shaken, at their father's bidding the

brothers led him off to the village of Monte San

Giovanni, some two miles away, where they shut

him as a close prisoner in the castle tower. There 1

he was subjected to harsh treatment, stripped of his

religious habit, reviled, and deprived of every com-

fort. Count Landulf visited his son from time to

time to induce him, nay, force him, to forsake the

Dominican life : he left a costly suit of garments,

and a Benedictine habit, declaring he would be

fully satisfied if Thomas would but don the one or

the other. What he looked to was pride of place :

his son should grace the Court, or rule as Lord

Abbot of Monte Cassino.

Like Christ in the desert, the novice had to

encounter three classes of temptation, and came

forth victorious. The world tempted him, first bythe softness of a mother's tears and entreaties :

when these failed of their purpose, it tried the

coaxings of his worldly minded sisters, who re-

hearsed the father's plea of fame at Court or in

arms, or else in Church preferment. By simple

and earnest discourse the novice won them over

completely to God : Marietta, the elder sister, em-


braced the cloistered state, and died as Abbess of

St. Mary's at Capua ; Theodora, afterwards Countess

of Marisco, entered upon a life of singular holiness.

From that hour both laboured to ameliorate his

hardships.

A stronger temptation then assailed him throughthe baseness of his brothers. Lust of the flesh is

death to spirituality : so they bribed a base woman

\ to try her lures, and entangle him in the Circe web

of sin. Seizing a burning faggot from the hearth,

he drove her from the chamber, then, falling on his

knees, he traced the sign of the Cross upon the

wall with the flaming brand, and poured out his

soul in thanks to God. Presently a gentle sleep

stole upon him, like to Adam's sleep of innocence

in Paradise. Then by his side he beheld two

angels who girt him about with a lily-white girdle,

saying the while :

" We come to thee from God, to

bestow upon thee the grace of perpetual virginity ".

They girded him so tightly that he awoke with a

loud cry of pain. He wore the sacred girdle all

through life, and only revealed the secret at its

close to Fr. Reginald of Piperno, who was his

bosom friend and confessor, assuring him that from

. that hour he was never again conscious of the

I slightest sensual motions. The prison cell in after

years was turned into a chapel, which may yet be

seen in a dilapidated condition. The angelic girdle

was preserved with reverence in the convent of his

Order at Vercelli, in Piedmont, down to the sup-

pression of the religious houses during the wars of

VOCATION AND TRIALS. ig

Napoleon I : it is now kept at Chieri, near Turin,

the first house restored.

This precious relic was solemnly transferred in

1894 to a new reliquary, which is a magnificent

work of art, made of bronze over-gilt. Standing

quite six feet six inches in height, of hexagonal shapeand Gothic design, it has six medallions on the

base, displaying scenes in his life, wrought in finest

Roman enamel. Around the knop in the centre

of the stem are the same number of statuettes of

Dominican saints, wrought in silver, and under

canopies. The reliquary superimposed is also a

hexagon, with a double set of silver statuettes, six

to each row, allegorical figures below, and angelswith musical instruments above, after the designsof Fra Angelico. Enclosed within a crystal case,

a much larger angel, with outspread arms, displays

the sacred girdle, now grown brown with age, which

is held in place by rings and threads of silver. Afigure of the Angelic Doctor, all resplendent in

gold, stands on high, beneath a pierced tower-

shaped canopy, which is finally topped by a goldcross.

Meanwhile his superiors and brethren had not

forgotten him as the months grew into a year, and

beyond. Father John of St. Julien contrived to

visit him several times, and supplied him with

another religious habit of the Order, which so

offended Count Landulf that he held him in dur-

ance for some days. Books too were gradually

supplied to relieve^ the tedium of imprisonment :


this was done through his sister's good offices : the

works supplied were carefully committed to mem-

ory ; these were Aristotle's"Metaphysics," the

"Sentences" of Peter Lombard, and portions of

the Sacred Scriptures. The Friars Preachers lodged

complaints with Pope Innocent IV and the Em-

peror Frederick against such unjust privation of

liberty, each of whom sent stringent orders for his

release. The pride of the soldier sons was roused

at such commands, nor would they comply, but

consented to connive at his escape. Like a second

Paul, he was let down from a window in a basket

into the arms of brethren who conducted him to

Naples," their hearts leaping with joy .at having

recovered their Joseph, who was endowed with the

spirit of understanding like Jacob's son "(Tocco).

He had endured a close and painful imprisonmentfor about eighteen months, so now, after a short pro-

bation in the cloister, he was admitted to solemn

vows in January, 1245,1

making profession into the

hands of the same Prior who had clothed him in

the habit of St. Dominic. 2

Having conquered world and flesh, the holy

youth had yet to vanquish the devil. Even earnest

Christians are at times unconsciously obsessed by

the lying spirit : deceived themselves, they labour

to mislead others. So was it now, when " the

father of lies"spoke by many mouths to " the

1 Acta S.S. Mar. vn. 710; Tocco 11. 12.

a The Prior, Thomas d'Agni di Lentino, subsequently

became Patriarch of Jerusalem,


Father of the faithful ". Appeals and complaints

were addressed to Pope Innocent, calling upon

him to annul the profession just made. Some

urged the impropriety of a prince turning mendi-

cant, since he was a possible heir to the titles and

estates : in fact he did survive his elder brothers.

Others again alleged defect of liberty in the novice ;

while not a few of his kinsmen pleaded nullity from

the ignorance of a youth who did not know the

world he had forsaken, nor realize the sacrifice he

had made. At the word of obedience, Thomas

presented himself before the Holy Father in Rome,

and vanquished Satan by outspoken truthfulness.

The Pontiff examined carefully the novice's mo-

tives in choosing the life and in making profession,

listened tenderly to the story of his vocation, and

ratified all that he had done. 1

1 The idle story of his having been a Benedictine monk

for over twelve years, first came up in the early eighteenth

century, and has again been served up in our own days.

Such was the contention of an anonymous brochure issued

in 1724, professing to be printed in Lyons, but in fact

printed in Venice :" De monachatu Benedictino Divi

Thomae Aquinatis". In it his birth is antedated by five

years, to 16 April, 1220. It was promptly refuted by

another publication entitled," De Fabula monachatus

Benedictini Divi Thomae Aquinatis," issued in the same

year at Venice. The only foundation for the fable was the

testimony of Bartholomew of Capua, Protonotary and

Chancellor of Sicily, in his deposition for the saint's

canonization. His actual words are these :" His father

presented the said friar Thomas to the monastery when

quite a child, with the idea of his being one day raised to


Baring his very soul to Pope Innocent, he

pleaded his cause with candour : while blamingno one, he declared his whole ambition was ab-

sorbed in a vocation to renounce all worldly ad-

vantages, so as to serve God and the cause of

Truth by becoming a Friar Preacher. On this

point he was unbending : so the Holy Father dis-

missed him with a blessing, and forbade any further

attempts to be made to hinder him from following

his manifest vocation.

After the threefold storm came a lull, a great

calm. Out of the fullness of the heart the tongue

grows eloquent : so now from overflowing piety he

composed and ever after used this prayer :—

"Lord Jesus Christ, I pray that the fiery and

honey-sweet power of Thy love may detach mysoul from everything under heaven, so that I maydie from love of Thy love, Who, out of love for

mine, did'st die upon the tree of the Cross.

Amen."

Thus, in the opening days of a gracious life,

"he shone as the morning star in the midst of

a cloud" (Ecclus. l. 6).

the government of the Abbey". When the Pope actuallyoffered him the rank in mature years, even retaining his

Dominican habit, St. Thomas would not hear of it.

PART II : NOON.

CHAPTER III.

HIS STUDIES AT COLOGNE AND PARIS.

The Master-General at this time was the Venerable

John of Wildeshausen, formerly a missionary, and

Bishop of Bosnia. Knowing well the worth and

rare abilities of his subject, he resolved on giving

him the best opportunities for developing his

singular powers. The first step was to remove him

far from the importunities and distractions of home.

The school presided over by Albertus Magnus in

Cologne being in his judgment the best suited for

the purpose, the holy man set out from Rome with

Br. Thomas, in October, 1245. But since busi-

ness of the order required the Father-General's

presence in Paris, they proceeded thither on foot,

carrying nothing but a satchel and a breviary.

In those days of faith it was a familiar scene to pass

Churchmen of every degree upon the ro^d ; now

bishops and abbots, mounted on well-caparisoned

horses, and with a retinue of retainers ; now the

beneficed clergy riding in company, or with the

stout burgesses, and a few men at arms for pro-

33


tection ; or else it might be the more modest com-

pany of monks and friars and pilgrims, all afoot,

and even the veiled minchins on palfreys. The

travellers sped on commonly like two streams in

their channels, going to or else returning from the

threshold of the holy Apostles in Rome. But

apart from this throng, it was of daily occurrence

to see the hooded friars of various orders wendingtheir way in couples or trios apart, and ever on foot,

across the Alps to the greater schools on either side

of the mountains, or journeying afar to attend

General Chapters. There was a constant move-

ment going on over those rough roads which were

the arteries of European life, and across many a

river and mountain.

Fr. John of Wildeshausen and Br. Thomas

Aquinas, stooping age and vigorous youth, thought

lightly of a journey afoot extending over 1500miles. They set out each morning and walked a

good space, now conversing familiarly, now recit-

ing the breviary or in silent meditation, until bysome running brook they opened their wallets for

the mid-day repast. At sunset they sought for

lodging in some religious establishment, or hospice,

or else under the roof of God-fearing folk. Such

\ had been St. Dominic's manner of travelling, and

that of all the mediaeval saints, and now from this

first experience St. Thomas grew familiar with it.

It was a weary task at the outset, until the traveller

came to be inured ;' but the free play of the

muscles supplies a vigour and freshness unknown

HIS STUDIES AT COLOGNE AND PARIS. 25

to them who lag at home. But at the same time

men's sense of Christian hospitality was more uni-

versal than in our day, and no one wearing thej

livery of Christ was ever turned from a Christian;

door : true enough, beds were often lacking, but

then there was the fragrant hay in the cottar's loft,

and the lowing of the cattle at night was a re-

minder of Bethlehem. In this fashion the aged

bishop and his son in Christ plodded on across the

rainy plains of Lombardy in sad November, crossed

the biting Alpine passes in December, and, follow-

ing the Valley of the Rhone, pressed northwards

towards Paris. Their brief halt in the French

capital was spent in the great Priory of St. Jacques,amidst their brethren. Once more they set out

with wallet and staff, through Brabant, past Lou-

vain and Aachen, until they reached the ancient

city of Cologne on the Rhine, in January 1246.

The Dominican Schools of Philosophy and Theologywere founded therein by the German friars in the

year 1222. This ancient foundation, dedicated to

St. Mary Magdalene, consisting of an extensive

priory and church, stood in the Stolkgasse, hard bythe cathedral. It had risen into public as well as

domestic eminence owing to the teaching of that

prodigiously learned man, Albertus Magnus. Hebelonged to the noble family of Bollstadt, from

Lavingen, in Bavarian Swabia ; during ten years he

had studied at Padua, and won his first spurs as a

keen dialectician, before taking the Dominicanhabit. Blessed Jordon of Saxony, the Master-


General at the time, completely captivated him by

his masterful eloquence and holiness, received his

vows by St. Dominic's tomb in Bologna, and left

him there to complete the higher studies. Return-

ing home to Germany, he acquired such a reputa-

tion for learning, notably in physical science, that

his contemporaries styled him " Albert the Great,

the Universal Doctor" and posterity has confirmed

the verdict. 1 The Belgian Chronicle has inscribed,

his name in its Annals with this just encomium :

" Great in Magic,2greater in Philosophy, greatest

in Divinity ". His published works in twenty-seven

folio volumes reveal his vast breadth of research, as

well as the depth of his acumen. Such was the

man marked out by God's Providence to be the

master of " The Angel of the Schools ". Albert was

in his fifty-second year, and Thomas just . 20

years old, when first they met : little did either of

them suppose that the younger would eclipse the

elder, as the sunset in glory veils the star. All

notions of Albert having ever been mentally slow,

or styled" the dull Swabian novice," must be rele-

gated to the pages of idle romance, for they are

utterly void of foundation.

St. Thomas entered the schools of Albert, as a

gem to be cut by a cunning hand, but the fluent

genius in the rostrum utterly failed to comprehend

him : the truer genius seated below was pro-

1 His marble effigy graces the Prince Consort Memorial

in London.

"That is, in Physics.


nounced to be a dullard. Among his fellow stu- j

dents Thomas passed for a slow wit, however much /

impressed they might be by his retirement and

application. Even Albert shared in the verdict,

until he received a rude awakening. Yet this

was the youth of whom Rodolph in his " Life of

Albertus Magnus"

gives the just estimate in im-

passioned phrase :

" Thomas hastened to Colognewith the ardour of a thirsty stag which runs to

a fountain of pure water, there to receive from

Albert's hand the life-giving cup of wisdom, and to

slake therein the thirst which consumed him ".

Among those novice-students, Germans, Italians,

French, were youths who afterwards shone in the

Church and in Universities as saints, cardinals, pre-

lates, and professors : such were Ambrose of Sienna,

Ulrich of Engelbrecht, Thomas de Cantimpre\ and

many more. Modesty in expressing an opinion,

the attitude of rapt attention as a listener, in the

tall Neapolitan brother, above all, his profound

humility in shunning display, all led up to the com-

mon verdict that Thomas was stupid, so a name

was speedily found for him : it was " the dumb

Sicilian ox ". With them learning meant wrang-

ling: with St. Thomas it was all thought. Whenasked later on in life why he had been silent so

long at Cologne, he replied :

"It was because I

had not yet learned to speak before such a mind as

Albert ".

A novice more charitable than his fellows offered

one day to help him in preparing the morrow's

3


lesson. The saint gratefully accepted the assist-

ance; but when the would-be instructor got hope-

lessly involved in the argument Thomas came to

his assistance and unravelled the tangle quite easily.

Some time after this Albert invited the scholars to

give him their views upon an obscure passage in

a book of itself obscure, the " Book of the Divine

Names," a fifth century work, but then uncritically

ascribed to Denis the Areopagite. The outwitted

brother, who had floundered so helplessly in assist-

ing Br. Thomas, now asked him to write down his

solution ;this he did in candid simplicity. The

paper was delivered into Albert's hands, who at

once recognized the impress of a master mind,

so straightway he set him up at the lector's

desk to defend certain knotty questions which were

subjects of discussion at the time. Thomas ex-

plained the matter with such surprising clearness

and force that his auditory was amazed. Nor did he

handle with less skill the intricate objections raised

by the Bachelor, as he cut his way through with

keen distinctions. The objector then interposed

sharply :

" You seem to forget that you are not a

master, to decide, but a disciple to learn how to

answer arguments raised ". Then came the simple

rejoinder :

"I don't see any other way of answering

the difficulty ". Albert now interposed :

"Very

well then, continue according to your method, but

remember that I have my objections to make ";

whereupon he plied him with retorts, axioms trans-

gressed, and sub-divisions of sub-distinctions, but


Thomas never faltered for an instant. To each

thrust of argument advanced he had a ready parry

of a distinction, or of argument retorted in its ut-

most conclusions, for he was a swordsman of the

tongue, a very giant of dialectics. Albert could re-

strain himself no longer." You call him ' a dumb

ox' but I declare before you that he will yet bellow

so loud in doctrine that his voice will resound

through the whole world." He procured a cell for

him next to his own, allowed him to avail himself

of the results of his own laborious researches, and

made him the companion of his walks.

The lesson was not lost upon the students, who,while admiring his genius, still continued to twit

him with his simplicity. One day a novice observ-

ing him as he stood by the open window, called

out :

"Look, look, there is an ox flying over the

convent ". Thomas leant forth and gazed up, to

be greeted with laughter of derision ; but the tor-

mentor quailed before the rejoinder :

"I was not so

simple as to believe that an ox could fly, but I

never imagined that a religious man could stoop to

falsehood ". Many years afterwards a similar jest

drew forth the same rebuke, when asked—" Could

you have believed that a fish could climb a tree ?"

St. Thomas was always extremely simple, but it was

the simplicity of the Gospel. At this early period

he launched forth on his first work, which was a

commentary on the Ethics of Aristotle.

Six months were the limit of his first stay in

Cologne; The General Chapter of the order met

3*


there at Pentecost decided to send Albert and

Thomas to Paris, the master to occupy a chair in

the University, which was then the foremost in the

world, the disciple to continue his studies under the

best possible advantages. The progress of this

scholar cannot be set forth better than in his own

axiom inculcated in the " Summa Theologica"

:

" Whatever is received by any subject is grasped

according to the subject's capacity ". And his was a

genius which already bid fair to overtop Albertus

Magnus.

During the month of August three Friars

Preachers might be seen journeying afoot from

the Rhine to the Seine : they were the Father-

General, the master, the disciple : the Venerable

John, Blessed Albert, St. Thomas. Once arrived

in Paris, master and disciple resumed their places in

the Dominican schools, which were affiliated to the

University. Albert's reputation having preceded

him, he drew a vast concourse of students to his lec-

tures;

in time the assembly grew to be so vast that

no hall could accommodate the auditory, until by

compulsion he had to lecture in the open square.

Master Albert was outpaced in holiness and in

learning by his meteor disciple ; but the Church

has beatified him, the world has acclaimed him as

the " Universal Doctor," who knew all that was to

be known. Daily on his knees he recited the entire

Psalter. His eminent piety has been attested to by

many, but let one witness suffice : it is the testi-

mony of his disciple, Cardinal Thomas of Can-


timpre :

" After this ought it to astonish us that

Albert should be endowed with superhuman know-

ledge, and that his word should enflame the heart

more than that of other masters ? We know nowfrom what source those transports of love proceeded,which we see so frequently break out in his nume-

rous writings." All the world owes him homage,because he trained the soul as well as the mind of

St. Thomas.

Whether the master commented, or examined in

the cloister school or elsewhere, Thomas was always

present, forming himself on the great model. At

this time he was engrossed in studying Aristotle's

Metaphysics, the " Sacra Pagina," or Holy Scrip-

tures, and Patrology, for these entered into the

normal course of every scholastic ; in his hours of

privacy in the cell he set himself to read and retain

in memory the voluminous writings of St. Augus-

tine, the most learned of the doctors. To Thomas .

the mind of Augustine was the mind of the Catholic '

Church ; upon him he based his opinions ; his

authority was final. Posterity is indebted to St.

Thomas for a benefit so little known and recog-

nized;after assimilating St. Augustine's works,

which usually extend to forty volumes in octavo,

he recast them in the terse and accurate speech of

the Schoolmen.

Patrology is sacred science in its least scientific

presentment. The Holy Fathers had none of the -

conciseness in form, none of the preciseness in ter-

minology, which characterizes the thirteenth century


Schoolmen ; they wrote with a fullness of diction

and laxity of expression which is often tedious and

sometimes misleading. The great Augustine is a

river whose fullness of waters gladdens the city of

God. The Fathers are the " Fontes" the Authori-

ties, while the Schoolmen are but the Exponents ;

the former define doctrine, the latter define form,

whereas " The Angel of the Schools"does both.

But it must not be overlooked that St. Thomas had

the Church's experience of eight centuries from the

age of St. Augustine, during which interval both

thought and speech were recast. Here in Paris he

was the reader, the thinker, the rememberer, but

still the disciple. To write and talk was reserved

for maturer days, when the coarse grain now pass-

ing through the mill of his mind would emerge as

the refined flour, to make the bread of doctrine.

What little he wrote was for his own purposes : his

hour had not yet come.

Such studious occupations did not cause his

spirit of piety to relax. How often does the study

even of Divine things cause the wells to dry up ! It

is to the student's hurt when the true inner spirit

gives way before the outer discipline of learning.

With the Dominicans, the novice remains such

until priesthood under the vigilant eye and candid

tongue of a novice master : forward youth, over

pert of speech, has to be kept under, and wilful

youth tamed ; indolent nature must be jogged, and

all show of cleverness put down by timely, yea,

and untimely, snubbings. St. Thomas had ex-


perience of it in the novitiate at Paris. One day

as he was reading aloud at table, the voice of

reproval rang out sharp, correcting him for a false

quantity in latinity : now although the error was

not the novice's but the corrector's, the reader in-

stantly adopted the amended prosody. When after-

wards twitted with his want of spirit, he replied :

"It really matters little how a word is pronounced,

but it is of the utmost importance to practise

humility and obedience on every occasion ".

While in Paris he met among our brethren, the

Friars Minor, one to whom his soul leaped out in

friendship : this was the future Seraphic Doctor

St. Bonaventure, a student at the time. For a

parallel friendship one must go back to the days

of David. "And it came to pass . . . the soul

of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and

Jonathan loved him as his own soul" (1 Kingsxviii. 1). Although they had entered religion

about the same time, Bonaventure was older than

Thomas by about four years. Their intimacy in

Paris extended over seven years, that is from 1246

to 1248, and again from 1252 to 1256. It is

sometimes stated that St. Thomas sat with his

friend as a student under Master Alexander de

Hales : that brilliant man, however, was dead

before Thomas's arrival.

After two years spent in the schools of St.

Jacques, Brother Thomas was raised to the Sub-

diaconate, and his younger brother, Rayner of

Aquino, gave himself to the order in Naples. The

4


General Chapter which met in Paris in this year

confirmed the Ordinances made in the two previous

chapters, and erected four new formal colleges for

the higher studies in other University centres :

Oxford for England, Bologna for Northern Italy,

Cologne for Germany, and Montpellier for Pro-

vence. Master Albert was now designated Regentfor Cologne, with Thomas for Bachelor ;

so once

more they wended their way to the Rhine, while

Brother Thomas carried in his sack Aristotle's

writings and the Sentences of Peter Lombard.

On the road they halted at Louvain in Brabant,

passing some days in the priory and church of

Notre Dame aux Dominicains, on the Dyle : a relic

of this visit is still reverently treasured in the new

foundation there, the restored "Studium Gene-

rale"; it is the upper portion of the "pupitre,"

or lectern, from which St. Thomas sang the

epistle.

As Bachelor he had charge of all the students :

it was his task to supervise their plan of study,

correct their essays, object severely in the daily

defensions, read iwith them in camera. As a pro-

fessor he began some daily lectures on Philosophy

and the Sacred Scriptures, which were not restricted

to his fellow religious, but were addressed to a great

concourse of clerics as well. It may not be out of

place to give his letter of golden advice addressed

to a student, premising that it is not admitted as

genuine by some critics :—


" My very dear (brother)." Since you have asked me how you ought

to study in order to amass the treasures of know-

ledge, listen to the advice which I am going to

give you.

"As a mere stripling, advance up the streams,

and do not all at once plunge into the deep : such

is my caution, and your lesson. I bid you to be

chary of speech, slower still in frequenting places

of talk : embrace purity of conscience, pray un-

ceasingly, love to keep to your cell if you wish to

be admitted into the mystic wine-cellar. Show

yourself genial to all : pay no heed to other folk's

affairs : be not over-familiar with any person, be-

cause over-much familiarity breeds contempt, and

gives occasion to distraction from study." On no account mix yourself up with the sayings

and the doings of persons in the outside world. Most

of all, avoid all useless visits, but try rather to walk

constantly in the footsteps of good and holy men.

Never mind from whom the lesson drops, but

commit to memory whatever useful advice may be

uttered. Give an account to yourself of your every

word and action : see that you understand what you

hear, and never leave a doubt unsolved : lay up all

you can in the storehouse of memory, as he does

who wants to fill a vase. ' Seek not the things

which are beyond thee'. \"Following these ways, you will your whole life

long put forth and bear both branches and fruit in


the vineyard of the Lord of Sabaoth. If you take

these words to heart, you will attain your desire."

This letter is unquestionably the reflex of his

own rule of conduct. No one could be more

affable, more courteous, yet at the same time it was

a principle with him to shun all needless visits;the

world might come to him, but he would not go out

to it. As the time drew near for him to be raised

to the sacred priesthood, he gave himself over to

more protracted prayer and watchings. Several

hours of the day, as well as part of the night, were

spent in attitude of adoration before the altar, often

sighing and weeping audibly as his soul melted with

devotion; the heat of love within was manifest

on the glowing countenance. At early morn the

brethren frequently found him like the angel guard-

ing the sepulchre. The Archbishop of Cologneraised him to the diaconate, and subsequently to

the priesthood. The prelate who had the privilege

of consecrating his holy hands was Conrad of Hoch-

staden, the princely and munificent Archbishop

who rebuilt the choir of the old RomanesqueCathedral. The ordination took place in the year

1250. His attitude in celebrating the Divine mys-

teries upon the altar was one of majesty, and of

rapt devotion. William de Tocco, his pupil and

first biographer, describes what he was privileged

to witness daily :

" When he consecrated in mass,

he was seized with such intensity of devotion as

to be dissolved in tears, utterly absorbed in its

mysteries, and nourished with its fruits ".


This year of gladness for him was one of dire

disaster for his family. His brothers left the service

of the Emperor Frederick II in consequence of his

hostility to the Pope, and took up arms in defence

of the Holy See. The enraged monarch thereupon

besieged Rocca Secca Castle, and all but demolished

it, put Raynald of Aquino to death, while the elder

brother, Landulf, who was now head of the family,

fell fighting in the cause of the Church. The

Countess Theodora, stricken with grief and years,

was forced into voluntary exile with her dependents,

and died soon after in sentiments of great piety.

St. Thomas heard of the ruin of his home andf

family with his wonted calrry humbly accepting *

God's inscrutable and adorable will. «.—>—£

All knowledge is aptly distinguished into two

classes, which form the divisions of the holy doc-

tor's writings. The distinction is his own :

" The

knowledge of Divine things is termed Wisdom,

whereas the knowledge of human things is called

Science ". His life henceforth may be generally

classified into two periods, each of twelve years ;

as an expository writer he now started his scien-

tific period, which was in 1262 commuted for the

sapiential.

During this time at Cologne he composed his

first Opuscula, or lesser works. These were first

of all Aristotelian : first in order was the treatise

" On Being and Essence," then another on " The

Principles of Nature ";

for his theological course

he wrote a "Commentary on the Sacred Scriptures,"


also a "Commentary on the Sentences of Peter

Lombard ". At the instance of Adelaide Duchess

of Brabant he drew up and sent her a treatise" On

the Government of the Jews," for it was a thorny

question of the day, as to how the Jews ought to be

treated by Christian rulers.

^ From the day of his ordination the scholar came

\ forth as the preacher. In the churches of Cologneand Bonn St. Thomas poured out his thoughts in

rich German speech to delighted auditories;he

was no utterer of platitudes or profundities, but an

orator who spoke to the heart and held men under

the spell of his sonorous eloquence. The great

German awakening to liberty, and letters, and

national prosperity, dated from 1250; their feu-

\ dalism ended then, and a religious-minded peopleS thought and wrote for the first time no longer in

Latinity but in their own vigorous tongue. St.

Thomas caught the public ear by his well-reasoned

doctrinal sermons, which were listened to by Jewsand Christians alike. To quote from de Tocco

once more :

" He was heard by the people as if

his discourse came from God "." A wholesome

tongue is a tree of life," as we read in Proverbs

xv. 4. We have grown so used to think of him as

the theologian teaching and writing that we are apt

J to lose sight of the apostolic side of his life. Not

less an apostle in zeal than St. Dominic, he never

let an occasion of preaching go by ; where hun-

dreds heard him in the schools, thousands hungon his lips in the churches of Italy, France, and

HE GRADUATES AS DOCTOR. 39

Germany, for this versatile man could say with St.

Paul*:'

I give thanks to my God, for that I speak I

in all your tongues"

(1 Cor. xiv. 18).

CHAPTER IV.

HE GRADUATES AS DOCTOR.

Great was the satisfaction of the scholars in Paris,

greater the joy of the brethren, when Thomas was

recalled thither as licentiate in 1252, with a view

to taking the doctorate. The holy friendship with

Bonaventure was resumed, and deepened. One

day he found his friend engaged in writing the life

of St. Francis of Assisi : loath to disturb him in his

devout task, he stole quietly away from the cell,

saying to his companion," Let us leave a saint to

write about a saint ".

It was now a period of conflict between the city

and the University, owing to the slaying of a

student, coupled with the wounding and arrest of

three more, perpetrated by the city guard. Since

satisfaction was not forthcoming, the doctors closed

their schools : but the Dominican and Franciscan

professors continued to lecture as usual, having no

interest in the dispute. Such a proceeding gave

offence, so the University authorities passed a new

statute, that for the future no one should be ad-

mitted to the degree of Doctor in Theology unless

he swore to observe all the statutes, especially the

one just formulated. This simply meant that on

every occasion of a dispute between themselves and

4o ST. THOMAS AQUINAS.

the city, all lectures must cease until the matter

was settled. The Mendicant Orders stood out, and

refused to be so restricted. Why should sober-

minded men be reduced to silence by reason of the

night escapades of these young bloods ! The dis-

agreement lasted for over three years, while the

saintly friends kept their souls in peace, studying,

praying, and lecturing, as if there were no such

entities as doctors and proctors and city-bailiffs.

But when Friar Thomas Aquinas was duly pre-

sented by the Prior and Regent to stand for his

degree, he was curtly set aside and the petition

refused. Feeling ran so high that he and Bona-

\ venture were driven out of the schools with kicks

and hisses : such was the secularism of the age.

Pope Alexander IV sent a Brief ordering the Uni-

versity to admit him to the doctorate : the Senate

steadily refused to obey the mandate. Matters

stood at a deadlock, the outlook was becoming

serious, as the students forsook Paris for Oxford,

not in units but in shoals, while Thomas lectured

to the shrunken auditory of his brethren only.

During this time, which was as peaceful to him as

it was distracting to others, he composed and issued

treatises" On Man,"

" On Eternity,""OnThought,"

" The Movement of the Heart," "Thirty-six Articles

in Reply to a Professor of Venice,""Explanation of

Two Decretals of Pope Innocent III," written for

the Archdeacon of Trent. The following, which

have been attributed to him, must however be con-

sidered as apocryphal:" Of Fate," "The Powers


or the Soul,"" The Difference between God's Word

and Man's Word," "The Essence and Dimensions

of Matter".

There came a lull in the storm early in 1256,

since the Pope wrote to the Chancellor on 4 May,

congratulating him on permitting Friar Thomas

Aquinas to teach, once more in public ;but the

spirit of rancour was still abroad. As he was

preaching in St. Jacques' Church on Palm Sunday,

one of the University proctors, Guillot by name,

marched in and stopped his discourse, after which

he read aloud a letter from William de St. Amourand the other doctors, full of acrimony against the

Mendicant -

Friars and the preacher in particular.

Thomas kept silent throughout, then calmly re-

sumed his sermon. This William de St. Amour, a

name of ill-omened fame, had just completed a

work against the Mendicant Orders, entitled," The

Perils of the Last Times ". This was the gage of

battle thrown down by the doctors of Paris Uni-

versity. The French episcopate spoke out against

the infamous book, but coming as it did from such

high authority, the students and people acceptedits lying statements. At the instance of the King,St. Louis IX, the Pope summoned both parties to

appear before him. The gage of battle thus reck-

lessly thrown down was taken up by Thomas and

Bonaventure, while a commission of doctors repre-

sented the University : it was question now, not of

privilege, but of the very right of existence for

religious men.


Thomas proceeded straight to Rome on the sum-

mons of the Master General, Humbert de Romans,who put the book into his hands to read and refute.

Against it he wrote his famous treatise, entitled,

I" An Apology for the Religious Orders," basing it

upon the opening words of Psalm lxxxii. :

" OGod, who shall be like unto Thee ? Hold not Thypeace, neither be Thou still, O God. For lo, Thine

enemies have made a noise : and they that hate

Thee have lifted up their head." He pronounced a

discourse before the General Chapter, in which he

broke out as follows :

" Have no fear, my brethren,

for- Iitfaye examined it, and find it to be captious,

perfidious, and erroneous ". The mendicant apolo-

gists were Albert and Thomas on behalf of the

Friars Preachers, Bonaventure and another on be-

half of the Friars Minor, besides other friars from

both orders ;all appeared before Pope Alexander

IV in Anagni Cathedral, and read their confuta-

tions ; as was to be expected, this silly and most

murderous work in its intent was condemned on

5 October, 1256. The apologies read that day

deserve the eternal gratitude of all the religious

orders: Paris reeled again under the blow smitten'

by the hands of the Universal, the Seraphic, th^JV-

Angelic doctors, who vindicated the rights of holy

poverty.

During this stay in Italy, St. Thomas confuted

another work of impiety and false mysticism, en-

titled "The Eternal Gospel". In November he

returned with Master Albert by sea to Marseilles.


During the early part of the voyage the weather

seemed promising : soon, however, a wild tempest

arose, which created panic in every breast but their

own. Like another Paul, the saint prayed, the lives

of the travellers and mariners were granted to his

prayers, and all reached the port in safety.

Eleven Papal Briefs were sent out before the

Angel of the Schools was admitted to his degree in

October, 1257, in his thirty-third year. When the

time came his humility took alarm : vainly he

pleaded his unworthiness of such a dignity, or

that there were other brethren, his seniors, who

were more deserving of the doctorate. It required

the voice of a formal obedience to get him to

acquiesce, and this made him sad of heart.

During the night preceding the academic Act

he was on his knees reciting the sixty-eighth Psalm,

seeking comfort from heaven. " Save me, O God,"

cried he,"for the waters are come in, even to my

soul !

"then sleep overcame him, and he had this

vision : before him stood a religious of mature

years, wearing the habit of the order, who ac-

costed him in gentle tones :

" Why are you be-

seeching God thus earnestly, and in tears ?" Then

Thomas answered him with all his natural sin-

cerity :

"It is on account of the burden of the

doctorate, for which my knowledge is insufficient,

likewise because I do not know which text to se-

lect as the burden of my discourse ". Then the

heavenly visitor continued :" Behold thou art

heard. Take the burden of the doctorate upon4


thee, since God is with thee: choose for thy sub-

ject this text, and all will go well with thee :' Thou

waterest the hills from Thy chambers above : the

earth shall be filled with the fruits of Thy works ' "

(Ps. cm. 13). Then he awoke and returned thanks

to God. Who else can the heavenly instructor

have been but the Apostolic Patriarch St. Dominic

himself?

Early in the morning of the eventful day Thomas

awoke with swollen cheek, and scarce able to speak

from pangs of toothache ; so he hied him to the

cell of his friend Father Reginald for counsel in his

misery. Reginald stood dumb with amazement at

the mishap. Did he suggest some old-time remedy ?

Very likely he did, but Thomas hit upon a speedier

one. Falling on his knees he prayed mutely a while,

when to the cell floor fell the cause of the trouble,

the tooth with its biting fangs.

It was on 23 October, 1257, that St. Thomas pro-

nounced his oration in the hall of the Archbishop's

palace, based on the text revealed to him :" Thou

waterest the hillsfrom Thy chambers above : the earth

shall be filled with the fruits of Thy works ". His

theme was " The Majesty of Christ" and he spoke

as one inspired, before a hushed assembly. It was

as a scene rehearsed from the Book of Job (xxix.) :

" The young men saw me, and hid themselves : the

elders rose up and stood. The rulers ceased to

speak, and laid their finger on their mouth." He

applied his text to our Lord, who is King over

angels and men alike. Christ from His throne of

HIS SYSTEM AND METHOD OF STUDY. 45

majesty waters the mountains, which are the

heavenly spirits, the sublime intelligences, with the

torrents of His glory and light. He fills the Earth,

that is to say, the Church upon earth, with the fruits

of His works, through the Sacraments, which are the

channels whereby He communicates to men the

fruits of His Passion. After the oration he was

solemnly received with cap and ring as a Doctor of

Paris. There is an old tradition to the effect that

St. Bonaventure was promoted on the same day.

Some critics deny the fact,1 but what tradition is

there which has not been gainsaid ! On this occasion

arose the only contention they ever had together.

Each from humility wished the other to take prece-

dence, until Thomas gave way as being the younger.

CHAPTER V.

HIS WRITINGS ; FIRST PERIOD : HIS SYSTEMAND METHOD OF STUDY.

11 Post honores, labores."—" To honours succeed la-

bours ".

Like some well-laden tree, Thomas, moved by the

Spirit of Truth from on high, dropped the ripe fruits

of learning. St. Raymund of Pennafort, known

in history as " The Master of the Decretals,"

after

resigning the rank of Master General of the Order of

Preachers, retired to Spain, where he exercised his

zeal in the conversion of the Jews and Moors.

1 " Acta S.S.," Tom. xxx. p. 809.

4*


What he needed most was a philosophic exposition

of Christian belief, to combat Arabian thought.

Aware of the newly risen star, he besought Father

Thomas in Paris to undertake the task. Writing

is preaching, when the pen is dipped in grace, and

is ever more enduring. So the holy Doctor re-

sponded to the appeal by commencing his first

monumental work, the " Summa Contra Gentiles,"

or," The Sum of the Truth of Catholic Faith against

the Gentiles ".1 Set forth in four books, it contains

a complete demonstration of Christian Truth against

false philosophies, demonstrating absolutely that

the dogmas of Christianity can never be op-

posed to right reason. Its success was immense,

and soon it was rendered out of Latin into

Greek, Syriac, and Hebrew, in order to be more

accessible to those against whose errors it was

composed. In European schools from 1261 it be-

came a text-book of the philosophy of religion.

Next followed the mixed writings known as the

-"Quodlibets," a collection in 160 Articles of

questions proposed with their solutions : some of

these questions were profound, others trivial, but all

throw a side-light on the scholastic subtilties of his

day. After this he put forth the opusculum of 104

articles upon"Truth," this he followed up by the

"Compendium ofTheology ". The masterly collec-

tion known as the "Questiones Disputatae" was

not written in any precise year : it is a compilation

^he exact date of completion of the " Summa Contra

Gentiles" appears to be 1261 (Ptol. Lucca, L, xxn, C. 23).


made in 400 articles, comprising his answers to dis-

cussions arising out of his lectures, and extendingover twenty years. In his elaborated Commentaryon the Book of Job, he draws out admirably the

argument of God's Providence governing the world.

The real presence of Christ in the Sacrament of the

Eucharist is a doctrine which cannot be denied with-

out making shipwreck of the faith. By the term

real is meant an objective, substantial, abiding

presence : it proclaims the living Christ to be truly

in the Sacrament," Secundum rei Veritatem ". This

doctrine is the very touchstone of Catholic belief,

the centre of Catholic devotion. But in the age of

St. Thomas, while all professed this faith, there were

conflicting opinions as to the manner of such pres-

ence. The Doctors of Paris were especially full of

this question, and now, after many fruitless disputes,

resolved to refer the matter to the Angelic Doctor,

since with him, to seize upon a difficulty was to unravel

it. For a time he withdrew to the solitude of his

cell to give himself up to prayer, then, under the

dictation of the Holy Spirit, he wrote a treatise," Of

Substance and Accidents in the Eucharist,"1 which

he afterwards so pithily expressed in the " LaudaSion ".

Here beneath these signs are hidden

Priceless things to sense forbidden ;

Signs, not things, are all we see.

1 The extant tractate is declared apocryphal by Pere Man-

donnet, O.P. Des Merits authentiques de St. Thomas

d'Aquin Fribourg, 1910, p. 97.


After finishing the work he retired to the church,

where he placed it upon the altar, and thus ad-

dressed the crucifix :

" Lord Jesus Christ, Who art

really present and workest wonders in this Sacra-

ment, I humbly beg of Thee, that if what I have

written of Thee be true, Thou wilt say so : but if I

have written aught which is not conformable to the

faith, or contrary to this holy mystery, be pleasedto hinder me from proceeding farther ". Fr. Regi-nald of Piperno and others who had followed him

saw our Blessed Lord appear, standing on the manu-

script, and heard Him speak these words of appro-bation :

" Thou hast written ably of the Sacrament

of My Body, and hast accurately determined the

difficulty proposed to thee, in so far as it can be

understood by man on earth, and be defined byhuman wisdom ". Then the spectators beheld the

holy man uplifted miraculously from the ground, as

if drawn heavenwards by the fervour of his devotion.

From that day the University looked upon him not

merely as a genius of thought, but as a man sent of

God. According to the statutes the Master must

retire on the expiry of one year, and Thomas com-

plied ;but so keen was the sense of loss, that after

a few months he was invited to resume his course.

St. Louis IX, King of France, held his relative

Thomas Aquinas in the highest esteem, and made

him a member of his Privy Council for State Affairs.

It was his wont to inform the holy Doctor the even-

ing before of all important business to be discussed

on the morrow, so that he might come prepared to


tender advice. One is not surprised to find these

years synchronize with the monarch's greatest tem-

poral glory, opening an epoch of lasting benefit to

France. He excused himself as often as he could

with propriety from sitting at the royal table, but

whether at Council board or supper, he was as

recollected as in his cell. While sitting at table one

evening with the King and Queen and guests, he

was observed to be quite lost in thought. Vainly

the Prior plucked his sleeve to arouse him, when

suddenly the goblets and platters jumped from a

blow of his fist on the trencher, and the sonorous

voice rang out :

" The argument is clinched against

the Manichees !

"All the while his train of thought

had been of the heresy of the new Manichees, the

Vaudois, and Cathari. The Prior rebuked him for

such unseemly conduct, but the gentle Louis only

smiled, and bade one of his secretaries write down

the argument hastily, lest it might lose its force and

clearness. The King furthermore employed him

and Fr. Vincent de Beauvais, author of " The Three-

fold Mirror," in arranging the royal library of rare

manuscripts. Often might the spectacle be seen of

the saintly King sitting as a rapt listener, while the

great Doctor, now a man of commanding stature

and build, poured out his eloquence within the

walls of Notre Dame, or of St. Jacques. A fairer sight

it was to behold Thomas humbly serving at Mass

in the conventual church, or making the rough ways

plain to novices in logic.

In the General Chapter assembled at Valen-


ciennes during Pentecost of 1259, he sat on the

Commission for Studies, together with Masters

Albert, Vincent de Beauvais, Peter de Tarentaise,1

Buonomo, and Florence, all of them Doctors of

Paris. It was their task to draw up a Norma

Studiorum, or fixed programme of higher studies,

to be employed in all colleges of the order ; the

Ordinances then prescribed may be found in the

Chapter Acts. 2 From thence he returned to Paris

for two more years, lecturing and writing as before.

In the schools his deportment and spirit reminded

the listeners of the mildness and modesty of Christ ;

never ruffled, never heated in argument, utterly de-

void of pretence or display, he kept to his childlike

way of holy simplicity. St. John Chrysostom in his

"Sixty-second Homily on St. Matthew's Gospel,"

makes this deep observation, and St. Thomas cer-

tainly lived up to it :

" The full measure of philo-

sophy is to be simple, with prudence : such is an

angelic life ". Once when he was examining a

candidate for the Licentiate, the cleric hazarded

a thesis savouring of unorthodoxy ; Thomas gently

reproved the line of argument taken, and pointed

out its fatal consequences, but with rare delicacy.

When blamed for not at once confuting the error,

he rejoined :

"I did not wish to put him to shame

before such a distinguished auditory, but to-morrow

1 Afterwards Pope Innocent V.3 " Reichart Acta Capitulorum Generalium," 1898, 1. 99 ;

cf. Denifle "Chartularium," Paris, 1889, I. 0. 385, etc.,

n. 335-


I will convince him of his mistake ". Next day

came the final defension in the Archbishop's palace,

when the same opinion was advanced with em-

boldened insolence. Then the holy Doctor calmly

objected by accepting the thesis, but with pitiless

logic forced the candidate to draw out his argument

to its ultimate conclusions, which he had to admit

were heretical and untenable. The defendant saw

his error, withdrew the thesis, and apologized for

the offensive manner assumed. The saint then ad-

ministered a correction quite after his own fashion :

"Ah, now you speak sound doctrine, as a true

teacher should ".

How did St. Thomas study? What was his

method in writing ? We gather it from the lips of

his inseparable secretary and confessor and confi-

dant, Fr. Reginald of Piperno. Before studying or ;

lecturing he prayed much, distrusting his great

natural gifts : when writing or dictating he would

frequently rise and stand a while before the cruci-

fix : at times he would withdraw to the altar where

the adorable Sacrament reposed, and, leaning uponthe altar table, or with head pressed against the ^jrTabernacle door, collect his thoughts as he sought

for light. During the composition of his Apologyfor the Faith, the " Summa Contra Gentiles," he

was often seen in rapture. The Vatican Library

contains among its other treasures a genuine auto-

graph copy, on whose margins he occasionally

wrote the words " Ave Maria ".

Genius is twofold : it may be the dower of rare


mental parts, but more commonly it is the faculty

of taking pains over work, the art of constructive-

ness : and St. Thomas shone in both. He took

the greatest pains in forecasting his scheme, divid-

ing and subdividing, after which he built up each

portion in a separate article. There is an old adagein the schools :

—Sanctus Doctor est doctrina simul et disciplina.

(The Holy Doctor is both doctrine and discipline.)

From him the scholar can learn science and method." He did all things well," as was said of our Lord.

Employing both methods, analytic and synthetic, his

aim was to construct each work on the basis of a

vast synthesis. Of course this does not hold goodof his Commentaries, where the purpose is all critical

and expository. Nor does it apply to the " Catena

Aurea," which is simply the stringing together of

quotations from the Fathers : but even here one

marvels at the acumen shown in the fitness of the

passages culled from each, like a handful from a

meadow.

The beauty of his writings lies in four cardinal

points : Sublimity of thought, Subtilty of argument,

Simplicity of style, Unction of spirit. Above all

things he is logical in sequel. No one can presumeto abridge him without losing the charm of his

rare diction : wilfully to excise an argument, especi-

ally one which he calls" a first and more obvious

one," such as the proof of God's existence drawn

from motion, is the freedom of a pigmy towards a

giant. The best model for the Christian apologist


to follow is his "Sum of the Truth of Catholic

Faith against the Gentiles ". His attitude towards

the princes of the ancients, Plato and Aristotle,1 is

always one of reverence : towards the leaders of the

Arabian school he is more hostile, since their in-

fluence threatened to undermine Christian thought :

hence all his destructive weapons were brought to

bear upon Avicenna (1037), Avicebron (1070), and

Averroes (1198). His philosophy is Aristotelian

throughout, but refined and purified by the light of

revelation : with all the elevation of Plato, he does

not disdain at times to use the Socratic method. Amaster of analysis, he furnishes us with many an

example of clear thought. Take for instance his

treatise on the Incarnation of our Blessed Lord,

which he disposes of in fifty-nine questions : it is all

resumed under four headings : Ingressus, His birth;

Progressus, His mission; Regressus, His passion and

death ; Exaltatio, His ascension and headship.

No one need ever hope to understand St. Thomas

who is not well grounded in Scholastic Philosophy :

mere knowledge of latinity will not suffice. The -

student must attend to the holy Doctor's method of

constructiveness, as exhibited in every article. Hefirst submits his proposition : as for instance—" Whether Grace be a quality of the soul ". Then

he opens out with arguments to the contrary, vary-

ing from two to twenty, but commonly three in

1 For question of the Church's supposed condemnation

of Aristotle's Philosophy see "Siger de Brabant," by Pierre

Mandonnet, O.P., Louvain, 1911.


number: these objections are drawn either from

reason or authority, and such authority is either of

Sacred Scripture, the Fathers, or the Philosophers.

After apparently demolishing the proposition, he

opens out his own line of argument by a " Sed

Contra ", or, "But on the contrary ". In the bodyof the article he constructs the proof by solid argu-

ments well reasoned out : frequently he adopts the

historic method, narrating the opinions of past

schools of thought, and demolishing each as he

proceeds : finally he lays down the conclusion as

established by irrefragable argument. All this is

constructive method : now he passes to the destruc-

tive. Each objection proposed at the outset is

weighed, distinguished, dismissed. The Scholastic

rule of debate is this :

" Never admit, seldom deny,

always distinguish ". All are not Thomists who read

St. Thomas : Thomism is consistency with the prin-

ciples and conclusions of the Master.

Great was the consternation and grief of Paris

when the newly elected Pontiff, Urban IV, sum-

moned St. Thomas to Rome. For four years now,

from 1 26 1 to 1265, he was a stranger to the public

schools : Universities vainly petitioned for his ser-

vices, but the Pope would have him close by his

side. Although never made Master of the Sacred

Palace, he was set over the school of select scholars,

and resided with them in the Lateran Palace. Ur-

ban IV was a promoter of learning, and insisted on

the staff and students following him in all his jour-

neys and residences through Italy : thus it came


about that during five years Thomas held his "pre-

lections," as they were termed, in Rome, Viterbo,

Fondi, Orvieto, Anagni, Perugia, and Bologna. Hewas now a member of the papal household, a Con-

suitor of the Holy Father, a teacher of the coming

princes and bishops of the Church : at the same

time he gave himself to preaching in these towns,

to the great profit of souls. The uppermost thought 1

in Urban's mind was the reunion of East with West,

since the Eastern Church was unfortunately severed

by heresy and schism. The Greek Church had

stood aloof for ages from the centre of unity, the

Chair of Peter, in a state of stagnation as to learn-

ing and sanctity. Christ's prayer for unity wrungthe Pontiff's soul

;so he opened his mind to the

Angelic Doctor. The zeal of the one and the learn-

ing of the other ought surely to accomplish our

Lord's desire :

"Grant, Father, that they may be one,

even as Thou and I are one" (St. John, xvn. 22).

According to St. Thomas, schism is a most grievous

crime, as destroying the Church's Unity, and setting

up many folds and shepherds. Figuratively speak-

ing, the Lord's seamless garment is rent : with such

a conviction in mind, this loyal son of the Church

set himself to repair it with the silver threads of

argument and the golden of charity. At the bid-

ding of Urban IV he composed a work entitled

"Against the Errors of the Greeks ". The Pope

sent the book to Michael Paleologus, the eighth

Emperor of Constantinople : soon it was turned

into the Greek tongue, and copies multiplied, which


found their way into many hands. He followed it

up with another work undertaken at the request of

the Precentor of Antioch ;

"Against the Errors of the

Greeks, Armenians, and Saracens ". In this treatise

he draws out in masterly fashion the Generation of

the Eternal Word, the Procession of the Holy Ghost,

the motive of the Incarnation, how the faithful re-

ceive the Body of Christ, Purgatory for expiation,

the Beatific Vision in heaven, and lastly, how Pre-

destination imposes no necessity on man's free-will.

Our saint did not live to see the realization of his

hopes, but he sowed the good seed which resulted

in the harvest garnered in at the General Council of

Florence, when the decree ofunion was pronounced.

Quite a year went by from St. Thomas's comingto Rome before the Pope removed his Court to

Viterbo; during this interval he interpreted Aristotle

to the students in the Lateran Palace. It was in

Viterbo that he completed his second Commentaryon the Sacred Scriptures : its method is quite

different from the first : in the latter he bases his

views upon Tradition, whereas in the former he

relied upon the revealed letter itself. When these

are employed side by side, they form a component

harmony of the written word. The one aim of his

life was to pursue and to impart knowledge. Daniel

d'Augusta put the question to him one day, as to

what he considered to be the greatest gift he had

ever received, apart from sanctifying grace : with

candour of soul he replied that it was the gift of

understanding all that he had ever read. To inti-


mate friends he disclosed the secret of his marvellous

wisdom, telling them that he learned more by prayer

than from study. This is the prayer which he invari-

ably made before lecturing or writing, or studying :—

"Creator, beyond human utterance, Who out of

Thy wisdom's treasures didst establish three hier-

archies of Angels, setting them in wonderful order

to preside over the empyrean heaven, and Who hast

most marvellously assorted the parts of the universe;

Thou Who art called the fountain-head of life and

of wisdom, and the one over-ruling principle; be

pleased to shed the ray of Thy brightness over the

gloom of my understanding, so as to dispel the

double shadow of sin and ignorance in which I was

born. Thou Who makest eloquent the tongues of

babes, instruct my tongue, and shed the grace of

Thy blessing upon my lips. Bestow on me keenness

of wit to understand, the power of a retentive

memory, method and ease of learning, subtilty for

explaining, and the gift of ready speech. Teach

me as I begin, direct me as I advance, complete myfinished task for me, ThouWho art truly Godand man,

Who livest and reignest for ever and ever. Amen." ^The fortieth General Chapter of the Order met

in London in the year 1263, at Pentecost. Weare told that 300 brethren took part in it, in the

priory which stood in Holborn, which, on the testi-

mony of Matthew Paris, was previously" the noble

residence"of the Earl of Kent. King Henry III

gave them a cordial welcome, assisted at the open-

ing ceremony, and, as the Garde-robe Accounts


testify, gave a new habit to every friar present ; this

was by no means a superfluous gift, considering

that all had come on foot, and many from remote

quarters of Europe. The Chapter was presided

over by the Venerable Humbert de Romans, fifth

Master-General, who, after nine years of govern-

ment, now laid down his office owing to infirmities.

The resignation came as a surprise, and was ac-

cepted with regret, but since the Chapter was not

an elective one, no more could be done than choose

a Vicar-General for the ensuing year. Master

Albertus Magnus was the one selected, and took

up office. It was an eminent Chapter, if only from

men of eminence who took part in it. St. Thomas

was there, also Blessed Albertus Magnus, Peter

de Tarentaise, better known now as Blessed

Innocent V, Peter de Luca, the Roman De-

finitor, all the Provincials of the order with

their companions, the Masters from Paris, David

de Ayr, the Vicar-General of Scotland, and

the Vicar from Ireland, some forty definitors,

and the professors from Oxford. The fact of St.

.: Thomas's presence is not attested by contemporary

writers, but by later ones, who set forth manyauthentic details of his life corroborated from other

sources. This need occasion no surprise, since the

scope and purpose of the first biographers was to

establish the sanctity and miracles of the Angelic

Doctor, as set forth by the Commissions. He

would have sailed from a French port in a schaloupe,

and landed at Deal, from whence a short journey


would bring him to his brethren in Canterbury.

From Canterbury to Rochester would form the

second stage : then on the close of the third dayhe would be crossing Old London Bridge. There

was an affinity between King Henry Plantagenet

and Thomas of Aquino, although a remote one,

since each sprang from the Princes of Normandy.Two main points occupy the attention of every

Chapter : these are regular observance and study.

During the great intellectual development of the

thirteenth century, the question of the Schools was

paramount ; the nomination of Masters in Theologyto the greater centres of teaching, the assigning of

scholars who were to read in the various faculties,

the enforcing or modifying of the Norma Studiorum,

all these had to be discussed, and the results pub-

lished. The aim of those first Dominicans, whose

motto has ever been Veritas, or Truth, was not to

keep abreast of the times, but to go beyond them,

to lead, and progress beyond the Sentences of Peter

Lombard in divinity, and glosses upon Aristotle.

Most of all they sought to specialize. Thus at

this very time three hundred of them were engagedunder Cardinal Hugh de St. Cher in compiling the

first Biblical Concordance, while St. Raymund of

Pennafort was compiling his Five Books of Decre-

tals, and others were establishing centres for the

study of Oriental languages. Their halls in St.

Edward's Schools at Oxford had been open now

just forty years, and to these many of the disaffected

scholars from Paris flocked. The condition of this


General House of Studies, enjoying the privileges

of a University, would certainly form a subject for

protracted discussion. On the conclusion of the

IChapter, St. Thomas returned to Viterbo by way of

Paris and Milan. In this latter city he prayed for

some days before the tomb of his holy brother in re-

ligion, St. Peter of Verona, the Martyr, in whose

honour a magnificent shrine had just been erected

over his remains in the church of the order, San

Eustorgio. At the request of the pious donors, he

then composed the still extant epitaph :—

Prceco, lucerna, pugil, Christi, populi, fideique, etc.

St. Thomas was Poet as well as Theologian : his

" Summa Theologica"

is one vast epic, while his

poems are all of them devout and couched in sweet

flowing numbers : and right well he sang of the

object dearest to his soul, Christ veiled in the

Eucharist. The office composed for the festival of

Corpus Christi is the rhapsody of a poet inspired

by faith and devotion ; that he wrote it is due to a

command received by Pope Urban IV, whom he

petitioned to establish a special feast to be known

as Corpus Christi's. The thought was by no means

his own, for the honour falls to three holy virgins

of Belgium, the Blessed Julienne, Prioress of Mont

Cornillon, Eve, the recluse by Liege, and Isabel

of Huy. Stirred by a vision of the saints petition-

ing our Lord to establish such a festival in His

Church, they consulted a devout Canon of Liege,

John de Lausanne, who warmly approved of their

design, and wrote the original Office of the Blessed


Sacrament. This good priest furthermore laid the

scheme before Urban in the days when he was

simply Archdeacon of St. Lambert in Liege, as

well as before the Dominican Provincial, Hugh de

St. Cher, besides consulting with Guy de Laon,

Bishop of Cambrai, and three Dominican theolo-

gians, John, Giles, and Gerard. Now that the

Archdeacon was seated on the throne of the Fisher-

man, he acceded to the prayers of these devout

souls, and commissioned "his own Doctor," as he

termed him, to compose a new office for the fes-

tival of Corpus Christi. Approaching this work in

the spirit of reverent criticism, one is forced to

pronounce it a marvel of poetic vein, tenderest

thought and sublime doctrine. Dipping his penas it were into his very heart, he wrote as one in-

spired; where all is beautiful, one is particularly

struck with its doctrinal accuracy. Thus, in the

Antiphon for the Second Vespers, he sets forth ad-

mirably the fourfold purpose of the Eucharist.

O Sacred Banquet ! wherein

(i) The Christ is received,

(2) The memory of His Passion recalled,

(3) The Soul is filled with grace, and

(4) A pledge of future glory given to us.

The language of theology is didactic, but in

the sequence, the Lauda Sion Salvatorem, he sings

even while he defines, like some bell-mouthed

Seraph strayed from heaven. With the year 1264

closes his Noon-tide of life. The morning star's

lustre has given place to the light of the full noon.

5*

PART III: EVENING.

CHAPTER VI.

HIS WRITINGS: SECOND PERIOD.

While the Angelic Doctor was reading his Office

- for Corpus Christi before Urban IV, the Pontiff's

I eyes were suffused with tears : never was gtier'dcm

better earned, so, retiring into his oratory, after a

little while he came forth bearing the large silver

dove containing the sacred species, and gave it as

a memento. Then he charged St. Thomas to write

a luminous commentary on the Four Gospels, com-

piled exclusively from the writings of the Fathers.

Under the title of " Catena Aurea," or " Golden

I

Chain," he composed the fullest commentary ever

drawn from Patristic sources, culled impartially from

Eastern and Western Fathers, and for the most

part written from memory. St. Matthew's Gospel,

finished in 1264, was dedicated to the Pope, who

died soon after ; the other three Gospebi followed,

but St. John's was dedicated to his fellow religious,

Cardinal d'Annibaldi. Directly Pope Clement IV

assumed the tiara in February, 1265, he summoned

Thomas to Rome. If love of truth made our saint

62

Jt

HIS WRITINGS : SECOND PERIOD. 63

always to seek the quiet of retirement, the call of

obedience found him ready for further work. Henow put forth another argumentative treatise, begun

long before in Paris, in which Arabian pantheism

yielded before the power of the syllogism ;its title

is :

" On the Unity of the Intellect, against the

Averroists". Averroe's^thecultured Arabianjjhysi- \

cjan, while outwardly professing to be a Christian,J

was an atheist at heart. Christianity he called an

impossible religion, Judaism one for children, '

Mohammedanism one fit for hogs. The basis of his

errors was this, that all men have but the one

intellect, and consequently but one soul : con-

sequently, there is no personal morality." Peter

is saved : I am one intellect and soul with Peter ;

so I shall be saved." Presumably the deduction

from unity of intellect with Judas was forgotten.

From the appearance of St. Thomas's work, the

philosophy of Averroes was consigned to the anti-

quities of the buried past.

Meanwhile the Father- General, Blessed John de

Vercelli, and his brethren, were conscious of the

loss to the Order in being so long deprived of the

holy doctor's services : so now, by agreement with

Pope Clement, he returned to the cloister-school

of Santa Sabina on the Aventine. The General

Chapter held at Montpellier in 1265 assigned him

to Rome, to resume teaching." We assign Friar

Thomas of Aquino to Rome, for the remission of

his sins, there to take over the direction of studies.

Should any students be found wanting in application,


we empower him to send them back to their own

convents." He now drew up the scheme of his

most memorable work, the triumph of his life, the

great "Summa Theologica," which he was not

destined to~cbmplete even after nine years of labour.

The very daring of the scheme, comprising the

whole range of dogmatic and moral theology, fills

the worj-d with astonishment, while its intricacy of

argument can be likened only to some gorgeous

tapestry woven by the genius of thought. Let us

hear his introductory prologue.

"Since the teacher of Catholic truth ought to

instruct not merely the advanced, but it falls to him

likewise to teach beginners, according to the saying

of the Apostle in I Corinthians in. i : 'As unto

little ones in Christ, I gave you milk to drink, and

not meat'

; the purpose of our intent in this work

is to treat of the matters of the Christian religion

in such a way as to adapt them to the instruction

of beginners.

"Now we have observed that novices in such learn-

ing are very much hindered by the writings of some

individuals ; partly from the multiplying of useless

questions, articles, and arguments ; partly again be-

cause the themes to be learnt are not dealt with in

their proper order, but just as the explanation of

text-books called for, or as occasion for discussion

arose ; and, finally, in part because the constant

repetition of the same matter begot weariness and

confusion in the minds of the listeners.

"Endeavouring then to avoid these and similar


drawbacks, and confiding in the Divine assistance,

we shall endeavour to traverse briefly and clearly all

the matters of sacred doctrine, according as the

matter in hand shall permit."

Drawing exhaustively upon theological founts, he

brings in Philosophy simply as a handmaid, to con-

firm from Reason the teachings of Revelation. This

Sum of Tlieology is the most perfect body of truth,

the fullest exposition of theological lore ever given

to the Church. When one calls to mind the frequent

interruptions from daily lectures, frequent preaching

and journeys afoot, the marvel is that it ever neared

completion. The First Part treats of God and

Creation. In rigid sequel the treatises deal with

God's Existence, Unity, Attributes, and Trinity.

Creation comprises God's creative action, the Hex-

ameron or work of the six days, the Angels, and

lastly Man. All this is set forth in 119 Questions,

or divisions, subdivided into 584 articles, makingone great folio. The Second Part is subdivided

into two divisions known as the First of the Second

and Second of the Second, yielding two more folios.

The former deals with the End of man, which is the

Vision of God ; with Morality, Passions, Sin, Theo-

logical and Moral Virtues, Gifts of the Spirit, Law,

and Grace. In comprises 114 Questions, containing

619 articles. Whereas this Part deals with the sub-

ject matter under common consideration, the Second

of the Second goes over the same ground in detail,

under particular consideration, ending with the

states of bishops and religious. This occupies 189

V

z:


Questions, with 916 articles. The Third Part

treats of Redemption through Christ ; the chief

treatises are the Incarnation, the Life of Christ, thus

forming a perfect Christology ; the Sacraments as

sources of grace applying the fruits of Redemption,then in detail—Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist,

and Penance. VVhen^micUway through the treatise

on Penance, the pen was laid down to be resumed

no more. With his own hand he wrote ninety

Questions, containing 539 articles. The rest of the

Part is all his, but compiled by another hand : it is

drawn from his Commentary on the Fourth Book

of the Sentences : this supplement contains ninety-

nine more Questions distributed into 442 articles ;

making the Third Part complete under 189 Ques-

tions, with 981 articles. This vast arsenal of Ca-

tholic Doctrine has altogether 497 Questions, sub-

divided into 2481 articles. The First Part, written

in Rome, occupied him during two years ;the

Second Part was written in Bologna and Paris, the

fruit of five years' toil ;the Third Part was compiled

in Naples. Small wonder then that the words of a

Pope are inserted as an antiphon in his festival

office :—

As a river of limpid knowledgeHe irrigates the entire Holy Church.

Ten years had elapsed since the attack was made

on the Mendicant Orders by William de Saint

Amour, who was forced to retire apparently a broken

man. Once more he returned to the fray with a


more plausible work, which the Pope handed over

to the Master General for St. Thomas to confute.

In 1268 appeared the Apology for the Religious

Orders, entitled"Against those who would withdraw

others from entering the Religious State ". He wrote

this Apology for a purpose, and he attained it : the

purpose was to combat prejudice against youth

seeking the state of perfection. Presently he added

another treatise," On the perfection of the Spiritual

Life," to show wherein Christian perfection lies

essentially, and by what means it may be attained.

All perfection consists essentially in Divine Love." God is Charity" hence, since human perfection

comes of progressive likeness to God, it follows

that it comes of the infusion and exercise of Charity.

It is the one abiding gift which never falls away.

The Moral Virtues give fitness for the life of blessed-

ness in heaven : Faith and Hope pass into Vision

and Embrace, but Charity alone endures. The

charity of creatures comprises four degrees, as the

ascending scale to the Holiest Himself. There is

the love of the Angels, whose choirs attain their

zenith in the blessed Seraphim. The sons of light

are the sons of fire." Thou makest thine Angels

spirits, and thy ministers a flame of fire"

(Psalm

cm. 4). Next in order comes the love of the Blessed,

ever actually engrossed in the thought of God, who

can never turn their faces away : with them their

love is their life, and the outcome of their degree

of charity when on earth. But, as St. Thomas

teaches, love such as this is beyond man's earthly


powers."It is not given to man upon earth to

think actually of God at all times, ever actually to

love Him." The remaining degrees concern us

men in our state of pilgrimage below. The charity

of earth is twofold : the higher is that of such as

embrace and keep the Gospel counsels of perfection,

by professing voluntary Poverty, perpetual Chastity,

entire Obedience. All are in the state of perfection

who thus follow the Master out of love. The

lowest rank is of such as are only called to, and

are content with, what is of precept, the simple

keeping of the Commandments. Thus the Religious

State is one of perfection, but actual perfection is

the heroism of fulfilment, the bloodless martyrdomof charity.

In Rome during the whole Lent of 1267 our

Saint preached in the Old Saint Peter's Basilica:

taking Christ's Passion for his theme, he spoke so

strongly against public vices that a change of morals

was observable on all sides. During the Good

Friday sermon he wept aloud, so as to move the

whole audience to tears : on the Easter Day and

during the Octave he made them all 10 thrill with

joy and hope. As he was passing out through the

porch, a woman long afflicted with a flow of blood

came behind him, kissed his cloak, and was in-

stantly cured. A remarkable Jewish conversion

made in the previous winter stirred the hearts of

the Romans. Cardinal d'Annibaldi having secured

Thomas for a few days' visit to his country residence

at Molara, invited two Rabbis to meet him, to enjoy

HIS WRITINGS: SECOND PERIOD. 69

his rare gift of conversation. Polite speech soon

grew to argument between the well-measured op-

ponents, regarding the Messiah, for it was Christmas

Eve. The Rabbis pleaded their cause with learn-

ing and earnestness, but all that they could advance

was met by clear proofs to the contrary, put before

them with all meekness and sincerity. They were

so tenacious of their convictions, however, that all

he said produced no immediate results : yet at the

same time they were so captivated by his manner,

that they promised to repeat the visit on the morrow.

That night of the Christmas mystery Thomas spent

before the new and abiding Bethlehem, "the home

of bread," on the altar: where argument failed,

prayer prevailed, and on Christmas Day he received

them into the Christian fold.

The holy Doctor acknowledged to friends, that,

on every Christmas night, he obtained some special

favour from God, some vision, or deeper insight

into the glories of Christ. His exquisitely tender

devotion towards our Lord stands revealed in this

prayer :—

" Most tender Jesus, may Thy most sacred Bodyand Blood be my soul's sweetness and delight, health

and holiness in every temptation, joy and peace in

every sorrow, light and strength in every word and

work, and my last safeguard in death."

St. Thomas was now held in universal esteem as

an oracle sent of God : halls and churches were

taxed to their utmost capacity to contain his eager

auditory, and those listeners were no mere youths,


but Doctors of the schools, Bishops and even Car-

dinals. He had such mastery over mind and senses

that he dictated to four secretaries at the one time

on widely different subjects, and was known to

dictate still while fast asleep. Such is the testimony

of two such secretaries, Reginald of Piperno and

Hervey Brito. So_capacious wa s his memory, tha t

he never.. forgot what he had once read. One even-

ing while dictating the treatise on the Holy Trinity,

he held the candle so as to assist the scribe : soon

he became so lost in sublime thought that he let the

candle burn out in his fingers, without being con-

scious of the pain.

At Pentecost of the year 1267 he took part in the

General Chapter of Bologna, and witnessed the

solemn translation of St. Dominic's relics : it was

on this occasion that the Pope sent him a Brief re-

quiring him to choose and send two friars to assist

the Bishop of Narenta in Dalmatia. The Univer-

sity prayed the Chapter to leave him in Bologna, so

he accepted a chair in the public schools. It was

a joy for him to live in the home wherein St. Dom-inic died : many were the nights he spent in prayer

before the Holy Father's tomb. It is an interesting

fact that he composed the questions on Beatitude

and the Beatific Vision in this hallowed spot. Out

of consideration for his merits, two new foundations

were bestowed upon the order. Archbishop Pa-

tricio Matteo gave St. Paul's church in Salerno, with

its houses and gardens," to his friend and former

masteiyq^homas of Aquino ". Abbot Bernard of

iRARY

HIS WRITINGS: SECOND PERIOD. 71

Monte Cassino, in a Synod of the clergy within his

jurisdiction, made over a similar establishment in

the town of San Germano.

In 1268 the house of Aquino was restored in its

honours and estates, whereat the man of Godadored heaven's judgments and designs, even while

he poured out thanks. At the request of the Master

General he composed a short work on " The Form

of Absolution"

: for the King of Sicily he wrote the

first two books of the treatise" On the Government

of Princes," but the third and fourth are by some

other pen.

Summoned to attend the General Chapter in

Paris in the year 1269, at the voice of authority he

remained there as Regent of Studies. The world

of letters might come to him, if it so listed, but he

would not go out to it, being pre-occupied with the

moral section of his " Summa ". He continued on

terms of holy intimacy with St. Louis IX, until that

Preux Chevalier sailed for the Holy Land in 1270.

During his two years' residence in Paris he published

these works: "On the Soul"; on "Potentia";" On the Union of the Word "

;

" On Spiritual Crea-

tures"

;

" On the Virtues"

;

" On Evil ".

One day he accompanied the novices to the

abbey church of St. Denys, which was the burial

place of the Kings of France; there they sat a

while to rest upon a hillock, and surveyed the city

stretched before them. Hoping to hear some

words of wisdom, one of the party observed :

uMaster, see what a splendid city Paris is

; would


you not care to be its lord?" Thomas gazedfor a moment, then replied :

"I would rather have

St. Chrysostom's Homilies on Matthew's Gospel.What could I possibly do with such a city ?

" " Well

Father," rejoined the novice, "you might sell it to

the King of France, and build convents for the

Friars Preachers in many a place."" In good

sooth," said the saint,"I should prefer the Homilies.

If I had the government of this city, it would bringme many cares : I could no longer give myself to

Divine contemplation, besides depriving myself of

spiritual consolations. Experience truly shows

this, that the more a man abandons himself to the

care and love of temporal things, the more he ex-

poses himself to lose heavenly blessings." "Ohappy Doctor," exclaims Tocco, "despiser of the

world ! O lover of heaven ! who carried out in con-

duct what he taught in words, who thus despised

earthly things, as if he had already caught a glimpseof the heaven he was looking forward to possess."

A man's character can be accurately measured byhis friendships. While bearing himself affably to-

wards all, the Angelic Doctor had but few inti-

macies, and these were with persons of singular

holiness. Now since friendship is based on resem-

blance, and results in equality and expansiveness,

one is not surprised to find that his great heart

opened to the learned, many of whom are enrolled

with him in the catalogue of the Blessed.

He kept perfect control over his emotional and

sensitive faculties. When the rude surgery of the


time required that he should be bled, and once

when it was deemed necessary to cauterize his knee

with a hot iron, he put himself into a state of con-

templation, and felt nothing whatever of the opera-

tion. When preaching, he stood firm and erect,

the clasped hands resting on the pulpit, the eyes

closed, the head upturned and thrown somewhat

backwards. At table he often sat lost in thought,

with open eyes gazing upwards ; it was the same in

the garden, the cloister, the cell. He frequently

gave this injunction to Reginald, his chief secretary ;

" Whatever you see happen in me, do not interrupt

me ". It was in 1270 he completed his Commen-

tary on St. Paul's Epistles, during the compositionof which he was favoured with the visible appearanceof the Apostle, who came to his assistance in ex-

pounding the more abstruse passages.

Recalled to Rome in 1271, he finished the second

section of the Second Part of his " Summa "in the

peaceful priory on the Aventine hill, and began the

Third Part. His time was now devoted to this

work, to daily lectures, and to writing a Commentaryon Boetius.

St. Thomas possessed a master mind rangingover the whole domain of Philosophy : after seven

centuries he is abreast of our times in science,

while not a few of our latter-day"discoveries

"may

be read in his pages. The twentieth century has

gone back to him for its epistemology, or science

of doctrine, to his canon of " Nihil in intellectu quin

priusfuerit in sensu ". With him, ethics is no dry

z


digest of "agibilia" it is the most practical of the

sciences, for it is the shaping of human conduct.

The political and social economist must consult

him for sound economics, as Pope Leo XIII did

in his Encyclical "Rerum Novarum"; there in

many an eloquent passage he will find as the basis

of social economy man's fundamental right of

ownership, while the determination falls to the

State. In Psychology this sage holds firm for the

real distinction between soul and faculties, and be-

tween the faculties themselves; feeling is largely

identified with will, but he is no patron of Rosminian

consciousness as being the soul's nature. It is to

St. Thomas we go for the sound philosophical

principles of rational physics. His exposition of

> cosmology, given in the treatise on Creation, which

A is contained in the First Part of the "Summa

/ Theologica," is out and out more scientific than all

theories of atomism, chemical forces of dynamism,

or pretended affinities of later days. Hejis

a

creationist, and holds to matter and form as the

substantialities of things. Primary matter is the

subject of all the substantial transformations of the

corporeal universe. Substantial form is the like-

ness of a Divine idea, which, being expressed in

matter, constitutes it in a determined substance :

as a consequence, the degrees of beings depend on

the perfection of forms.

Nature is the first principle of motion and of

rest. All primitive substantial forms as well as

primary matter must come of creation : his teach-


ing shows the impossibility of our modern bio-

genesis. The variation of gravity he explains not

by addition or subtraction of extraneous particles,

but by matter itself becoming rare or dense;hence

heaviness is a result of density. He was well ac-

quainted with ether, admitting as he does of an

ethereal and most subtle bodily substance every-

where diffused in the interplanetary spaces, as the

vehicle and subject of the reciprocal operations of

the stars and planets. Such is the explanation of

the diffusion of light and heat, in agreement with

experience. Ages before Melloni he said :

" All

light is productive of heat, even the light of the

Moon ". Those who talk of sex in plants as a

modern discovery had better read his "Commentary

on the Third Book of ' Sentences'

"." In the same

plant there is the twofold virtue, active and passive,

though sometimes the active is found in one, and

the passive in another, so that the one plant is

said to be masculine, and the other feminine." 1

He was well acquainted with seminal causes, the

laws of qualities, attraction, mechanical activity,

and inertia of bodies : in the matter of chemistry

there is no substantial discrepancy between his

teaching and the true principles of modern science

as to substantial transformation.

lIH,

"Sent.," Dist. Ill, Quest. II, art. 1.


CHAPTER VII.

HIS HEROIC SANCTITY.

4Our saint presented a very noble and striking

figure. He was of lofty stature, of heavy build but

well proportioned, while his countenance was of

our northern complexion .

"like the colour of new

wheat,' as we read in the deposition for his canoniz-

ation. The features were comely, the head mas-

sive and well shaped, the forehead lofty, and he

was slightly bajd. Judging from his portrait, the

general aspect was calm, sweet, majestic ; the deepmeditative eyes speak of gentleness, the nose is

long and straight, the mouth very firm. Taken

altogether, the features reveal the inner charm of

his soul.

The earliest known portrait is a superb painting

on a panel by an unknown artist of the fifteenth

century, now preserved in the Louvre at Paris. Areplica of inferior quality is to be seen in the sup-

pressed Carmelite convent at Viterbo. An in-

scription beneath reads thus :

" The true portrait

of the Angelic Doctor Saint Thomas Aquinas, as

described by a disciple ".

He was the saint of sublimest thought, which he

nourished with 1

spiritual reading. "In such read-

ing I try to collect devout thoughts, which will lead

me easily to contemplation."

The basis of his character and conduct was holy

humility. The advice he tendered to others, he

Photo. Alinari.

ST. THOMAS AQUINAS. LUNETTE FRESCO IN

CLOISTER OF SAN MARCO, FLORENCE, BYFRA ANGELICO DA FIESOLE.

HIS HEROIC SANCTITY. 77

took to heart himself. " Love of God leads to self-

contempt, whereas self-love leads to the contemptof God. If you would raise on high the edifice

of holiness, take humility for your foundation."

In a moment of confidence he made this candid

avowal to Fr. Reginald of Piperno." Thanks be

to God, my knowledge, my title of Doctor, myscholastic work, have never occasioned a single

movement of vain glory, to dethrone the virtue of

humility in my heart." Dignities he would never ~J

accept : he held no office in his Order. He de-

clined the lordly abbacy of Monte Cassino, even

though the Pope offered to let him keep his habit

of a Friar Preacher. Clement IV tried to secure

his acceptance of a Cardinal's hat, and expedited

the Brief creating him Archbishop of Naples, but

all to no purpose ;when death was in view, he

uttered this exclamation :

" Thanks be to God, I "z7

"

die as a simple religious ".

He was very tenacious of poverty ;all his

journeys were made on foot,his habit was of the

poorest, he kept rigidly to the common life. Fr.

Nicholas de Marsiliaco has furnished us with this

testimony :"

I was in Paris with Fr. Thomas, and

I declare before God that never have I seen in

any man such degree of innocence, such love of

poverty. In writing his 'Sum against the Gen-

tiles' he had not sufficient copy-books, so he wrote ^1

it on scraps of paper, although he might have had

books in abundance, had he been so minded, but

he had no concern for temporal affairs." If mitre

6*


and scarlet had no attractions, still less had the

rich revenues of an abbey, St. Peter ad Aram, in

Rome, when offered by Pope Clement. He would

keep nothing for his personal use, no chalice, no

manuscript, while hejield dainties in abhorrence,

and practised austerities.

As to obedience, it was one of his sayings that

an obedient man is the same as a saint. Hewas just as prompt and hearty in obeying his Prior

as in obeying the Father-General, or our Lord the

Pope. A lay-brother in Bologna, having occasion

to go out of the convent to make some necessary

purchases for the table, had leave to summon the

first friar he met to bear him company, as the rule

required. St. Thomas was pacing the cloister at

the moment, to whom the brother spoke thus :

"Good father, the Prior wants you to follow me

through the town ". Thomas complied, but as they

strode through streets and market he was unable

to maintain the pace, being slightly lame, for which

he was soundly rated more than once. Theamazed townsfolk interposed with heated speech,

reminding the testy one of his companion's dignity,

to say nothing of his infirmity. The simple brother

fell at once to his knees to implore forgiveness, for

he had no idea of the strange father's name or

rank : St. Thomas, however, reassured him by saying

that each was simply carrying out an obedience.

It was then he uttered the oft-quoted maxim :

" Obedience is the perfection of religious life :

thereby a man submits himself to his fellow-man


for the love of God, just as God became obedient

to men for their salvation ".

With regard to the holy chastity, the Angelic

Doctor is both patron and pattern of the angelic

virtue : youth and maiden, priest and cloistered soul,

acclaim him alike as their model and protector."Incorruption bringeth nearer to God "

(Wisdom,vi. 20). In his "Commentary on St. Paul's 1

Corinthians,"Chapter VII, lesson 6, he rehearses

eight blessings of Virginity.

1. It preserves cleanness of the flesh. 2. It

beautifies and adorns the soul. 3. It makes like

unto the Angels of heaven. 4. It espouses to the

Christ. 5. It gives union with and closeness to

God. 6. It surpasses other states. 7. It breathes

forth the odour of good repute. 8. It invites to

the eternal nuptials. Of these the most valuable

are the fourth, fifth, and last. It espouses unto the

Christ by giving fitness for union with Christ's

Body in Holy Communion, and to the priest for

making, handling, and dispensing the same. Hence

the Poet Virgil places the life-long chaste priest in

the Elysian fields.

Quique sacerdotes casti, dum vita manebat.—iEneid, vi. 661.

It gives union with God, and closeness, by bestow-

ing fitness for contemplation. "Where there is

cleanness there is understanding ;

" " What re-

moves a hindrance is an indirect mover," as St.

Thomas constantly urges. Chastity lends fitness

8o ST. THOMAS AQUINAS.

for contemplation by removing carnal desires, which

so affect the mind's eye that even the truest see sin

through a distorted lens. Lastly, it invites to the

eternal nuptials. The closer anything approachesto its principle, the more perfect it becomes : but

God, Who is our Principle, is a most Pure Spirit :

therefore, Chastity leads up to perfection. But

our last end is to be one of inseparable union with

the all-clean God, as guests at the nuptials of the

Lamb ; therefore Chastity disposes for such union.

The saint lived and died a perfect virgin in mind

and body : his heroism in youth drew Angels downfrom heaven. " He who loves cleanness of heart,

for the grace of his lips, shall have the King for a

friend" (Proverbs xxn. n).The depth of his Divine love, God alone can

sound : it was revealed in a measure by his life,

but he never spoke of it."It is a good thing to

conceal the King's secret"

(Tobias xn. 7). All the

world read his heart, his human kindness, his deep

friendships. No hard sayingLfiyer crossed his lips :

he could slay an argument, yet spare a foe. Without

guile in his own soul, he could with difficulty be

brought to believe in the guilt of others. Whenhe sat in the tribunal of penance, in God's Mercy-

seat, it was with a melting heart of pity. Two

things he loved especially : these were the Order

of Preachers, and God's poor. From love of the

brethren he blessed the church bell at Salerno,

foretelling that it would toll of itself to give warning

of an approaching death. It kept its miraculous


power until it fell and was broken in the seventeenth

century.1 Like St. Dominic he was " ever joyous

in the sight of men," uniting the grace of noble

manners to the reserve of the religious. He in-

culcated and observed the remembrance of God's

presence." Be assured," he would say,

" that he

who walks faithfully in God's presence, and who is

ready to give Him an account of his actions, will

never be parted from Him by yielding to sin."

Prayer was for him the very breath of his life.

Frequently he urged St. Augustine's maxim :

" Heknows how to live rightly, who has learnt how to

pray properly". In the funeral discourse at hi

obsequies, Fr. Reginald bore this testimony:"During life my Master always prevented me from

revealing the wonders which I witnessed. Of this

number was his marvellous learning which uplifted

him beyond all other men, which he•fwefl less/to

power of genius than to the efficacy of his prayer.

Truly, before studying, or lecturing, reading, writing,

or dictating, he began by shutting himself up in

secret prayer : he prayed with tears, so as to obtain

from God the understanding of His mysteries, and

then lights came in abundance to illumine his mind.

When he encountered a difficulty, he had recourse

to prayer, and all his doubts vanished."

The Angelic teacher was likewise an Angelic

singer : nothing but inability from sickness ever

kept him from Choir duty. In the opening of his

treatise," On the Separated Substances," that is,

1 Its power was still attested in 1678.


the Angels, he acknowledges his absence for a time

from Divine praise in the Choir, due to frequent

attacks of sickness."Being deprived of assisting

at the solemnities of the Angels, we must not allow

a time consecrated to devotion to be unoccupied,

but rather compensate by study for the loss of

assisting at the Divine Office."

His devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary was

I tender and deep, as evinced by his writings, and by-* this prayer :

—" Dearest and most blessed Virgin Mary, Mother

of God, overflowing with affection, Daughter of the

Sovereign King, and Queen of the Angels : Mother

of Him Who created all things, this day and all the

days of my life I commend to the bosom of thy

regard my soul and my body, all my actions,

thoughts, wishes, desires, words, and deeds, mywhole life, and my end : so that through thy prayers

they may all be ordered according to the will of thy

beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Lady most

holy, be my helper and my comforter against the

attacks and snares of the ancient foe, and of all myenemies."

A few days before his death he told Fr. Reginald

that Christ's dear Mother had appeared to him on

/ several occasions, assuring him that his life and

writings were pleasing to God, and that he would

persevere in his state. St. Vincent Ferrer and St. An-

toninus of Florence affirm that in his difficulties he

used to turn to her as a child to a mother. Then

/^she would stand visibly before him, and, turning


with a smile to the Divine Babe in her arms, ask

Him to bestow the enlightenment he sought.

A complete Mariology has been compiled from

his works, drawing out Mary's singular graces.1

He| 2, |

upheld the privilege of her exemption from original! \ Jsin. It is an old-established saying, that,

" with St.*

Thomas a man can never be wrong, nor can he be

right without him ". That he upheld Mary's sinless

conception can be established from extrinsic and

intrinsic evidences. It is the verdict of his weigh-

tiest exponents, such as Capponi de Porrecta, /Joannes a Sancto Thoma, Natalis Alexander, John

Bromeyard of Oxford, and many more. At the

Council of Basle, John of Segobia upheld the Im-~~j

maculate Conception from St. Thomas's writings.

Theologians of first rank have held the same view,

such as Vega, Eichof, Nieremberg, Sylveira, Thyrsus

Gonzalez, Stefano Chiesa, Piazza, Spada, Cornoldi,

Cardinal Sfondrato, Cardinal Lambruschini, etc.

If we open his writings we have the intrinsic

evidences of various passages. In his"Opusculum,"

LXI, de Dilectione Dei, et Proximi, we meet this

passage :

" For the more complete manifestation

of His power, the Creator made a mirror which is

brightest of the most bright, more polished and

more pure than the Seraphim, and of such great

purity that there can not be imagined one more

pure, except it were God : and this mirror is the

person of the most glorious Virgin ".

In his"Commentary on the First Book of the

1 The work of Rev. Dr. Morgott, Ratisbon.


"Sentences,'

" he twice makes use of this sentence :

" The Blessed Virgin Mary shone with a purity

greater than which under God cannot be compre-

hended." (Dist. XVII, Quest. II, art. 4, 3m

).Here

is his proof:" Increase of purity is to be measured

according to withdrawal from its opposite, and

since in the Blessed Virgin there was '

depuratio'

from all sin, she consequently attained the summit

of purity ; but yet under God, in Whom there is no

capability of defect as is in every creature of itself".

And again he writes in Dist. XLIV, Quest. I, art 3 :

"Purity is increased by withdrawal from its op-

posite, and consequently some created being can

be found purer than which nothing can be found in

creatures, if never sullied by defilement of sin, and

such was the purity of the Blessed Virgin, who was

exemptfrom original and actual sin ". Some think

that the expression"depuratio

"argues cleansing

from stain ; but such was not the meaning which St.

Thomas attached to the word. The Holy Fathers

frequently use this word with regard to God Him-

self. St. Augustine, Peter Lombard, Fulgentius,

Ferrandus, Hugh of St. Victor, also use it of God,

while a whole host of writers employ it when speak-

ing of Christ : St. Thomas uses it twice in his

treatise on the Incarnation, and Dionysius makes

use of it with regard to the heavenly Hierarchies.

So then,"depuratio ab omnipeccato" does not mean^ "

cleansing from all sin," but "exemption from all

sin". The Angelic Doctor knew the scientific

value of the term used, and his critics do not.


The expression used above " immunis a peccato"

\

is the one employed by Pope Pius IX in proclaim- J

ing the dogma.There is no need to expatiate on the fact that

St. Thomas was a consummate logician, and con-

sequently not likely to teach in one part of his

writings the contrary to what he lays down in

another. In the First Part of the "SummaTheo-

logica," Question XXV, art. 6, ad. 4, he writes :

" The Blessed Virgin, in that she is the Mother

of God, has a kind of infinite dignity from the In-

finite Good, which is God, and on this account

nothing better than her can be made, just as there

is nothing better than God ". Again in the Third •- 4

Part, Question XXVII, art. 3, he says :

" The closer

a thing approaches to its principle in any order,

the more it partakes of the effect of such principle.

Hence Dionysius states in the fourth chapter of

the '

Heavenly Hierarchies,' that ' the angels being

nearer to God, share more fully of the Divine per-

fections than men do '. But Christ is the principle

of grace authoritatively according to His Divinity

and instrumentally in His humanity, as St. Johndeclares in the first chapter (of the Gospel).' Grace and truth are made through our LordJesusChrist.' But the Blessed Virgin was closest to Christ faffin His humanity, since He drew His human nature

from her, and therefore she ought beyond all others

to receive the fullness of grace from Christ."

From these two passages we gather St. Thomas's

teaching as to Mary's prerogatives. 1. She pos-


sessed an almost infinite dignity from her closeness

to God, in this surpassing the angels. 2. She ought,

that is, she had the right, to receive the fullness of

Divine grace beyond all other creatures. Since then

it is the work of grace to purify the soul by impart-

ing to it the Divine beauty, it follows necessarily that

grace wrought absolute sinlessness in her soul, and

created boundless holiness. In this dual capacity

of closest union with God, and being the appointed

instrument of Christ's humanity, she surpassed the

angels, who never knew sin : she had a kind of in-

finitude in merit which none of them ever could

have. How then can such teaching of St. Thomas

be reeoriciled with the idea that Mary had ever been

suitiea for an instant with original sin ? Let the

theory be once admitted that Mary had been so

defiled, then his two principles given above fall to

the ground ; admit his principles, and the Immacu-

late Conception is the logical result. The holy

Doctor was well aware of the grace bestowed on

those pre-eminent saints, Jeremiah and John the

Baptist, yet he does not hesitate to place Mary

incomparably beyond them, and attributes their

sanctification to her as well as to her son. She

must then, logically speaking, have received a greater

grace than cleansing after conception.

In his exposition of the " Hail Mary" he dis-

tinctly declares the doctrine. "Thirdly, she exceeds

even the angels in purity : because the Blessed

Virgin was not only pure in herself, but even pro-

cured purity for others. She was most clean from


fault, because she incurred neither original, nor

mortal, nor venial sin."

In his "Commentary on the Epistle to Galatians,"

III, lect. VI, the original text runs thus :

" Of all

women I have found none who was altogether ex-

empt from sin, at least from original sin, or venial,

except the most pure, and most worthy of all praise,

the Virgin Mary ".

Again in his "Commentary on the Epistle to

Romans ": "All men have sinned in Adam, except-

ing only the most Blessed Virgin, who contracted

no stain of Original Sin ".

Such are the readings of the first MS. Codices

and early printed versions. In a marginal note

written by St. Vincent Ferrer in his copy of the"Summa," Part III, Question XXVII, art. 2, ad. 2m,

are these words :

" The Blessed Virgin was exemptfrom original and actual sin ". It was these original

texts of early manuscript Codices which early de-

fenders of the Immaculate Conception quoted for

their opinion, such as St. Leonard of Port Maurice,

Bernardine de Bustis, B. Peter Canisius, Cardinal

Sfondrato, Salmeron, and many more. Weighty

theologians such as Velasquez, Peter of Alva, Euse-

bius Nieremberg, Frassen, Lambruschini, Gual, and

Palmieri, following the critical method of Herme-

neutics, have held and shown that many passages

of St. Thomas have been changed or interpolated.

Let it suffice to adduce three apologetic writers who

denounce such practices, and vindicate the purity

of his text. Bishop Vialmo, a Friar Preacher :


" Pro defensione Sancti Thomae "; Egidius Ro-

manus, a disciple of St. Thomas "Castigatorium :

in corruptorem librorum S. Thomae Aquinatis"

;

Cardinal Sfondrato :

" Innocentia Vindicata"

;be-

sides seven more apologists.

ISome of the Angelic Doctor's neat sayings

s caught in familiar conversation have been preserved.''•

" The poverty of a discontented religious is a use-

£ less expense." "The prayerless soul makes no

progress whatever." "A religious without prayer

resembles a soldier fighting without weapons."" Idleness is the devil's hook, on which any bait is

tempting.""

I cannot understand how anyoneconscious of mortal sin can laugh or be merry."

When asked how to detect a spiritual-minded man,he gave this reply :

" He who is constantly chatter-

ing about frivolous things, who fears being despised,

1 who is weary of life, whatever marvels he may work,

I do not look on him as a perfect man, since all he

does is without foundation, and he who cannot

suffer is ready for a fall ". To his sister Theodora,

inquiring how to become a saint, he replied with

a single word,"

Ve/fe," or " Resolve ".

It is not surprising that one so clean of heart

and full of charity should be favoured with visions,

or that the dead should make an appeal to his pity.

Thus, in earlier years he foresaw the triumph of

the Mendicant Friars, while they were being sub-

jected to persecution." A Doctor of Theology in

Paris, a man of great reputation and learning, and

one who rendered signal services to the Church,


during the time that the Master- General was doing

battle for the order in the Roman Court, at the

trying period when bitter enmity prevailed against

the brethren, saw in a dream a great concourse of

friars looking up to heaven, who called out to him ;

1 Look ! Look !

' He also gazed upwards, and

saw these words emblazoned in letters of gold uponthe sky :

' The Lord has delivered us from our

enemies, and from the hands of all them that hated

us \ At that very time the Brief issued by PopeInnocent against the Mendicant Friars was recalled

by Alexander his successor, through the favour of

the Most High" (Gerard de Frachet, "Lives of

the Brethren," Book IV, Chap, xxiii.).

His deceased sister, Marietta, the Abbess of

Capua, appeared to him in Paris in the year 1272,

to commend her soul to his prayers : some time

later she reappeared in Rome to tell him that she

was admitted to glory. When he inquired about

his dead brothers Raynald and Landulf, she assured

him that the former was already in paradise, but

that the latter was still in purgatory. Then, em-

boldened, he put the question as to whether he

would himself die before long, and secure his

eternal salvation. To this she replied : "You will

be saved, if you but persevere, but you will attain

your last end very differently from us; you will

speedily join us, but your glory will quite surpass

ours ". Shortly after this he was consoled by the

vision of an angel displaying a book, on which the

names of the saints were written in golden letters

go ST. THOMAS AQUINAS.

on an azure ground, and among them he saw

Raynald's name among the martyrs. The angel

disappeared, and Raynald stood visibly before him." How do I stand with God ?

" was our saint's first

question. "You are in a good state, my brother.

Such a query is unbecoming, because you are in

the sure way which leads to life. Hold fast to what

you now have, and finish as you have begun : learn

also for a certainty, that none of your Order, or very

few, will be lost."

CHAPTER VIII.

HIS WRITINGS; THIRD PERIOD: AND DEATH.

The completion of the Moral Section of the " Sum-

ma" raised St. Thomas to the height of fame.

The Universities of Paris, Bologna, and Naples,

sent eager applications to have him, addressed to

the General Chapter sitting in Florence during the

Pentecost-tide of 1272. Rome lost him, as there

was no reigning Pontiff to retain him, and Naples

won him. The Capitular fathers assigned him to

teach in Naples University, at the earnest suit of

Charles, King of Sicily, the brother of St. Louis,

who contributed two ounces of gold per month

for his maintenance. Late in the month of Au-

gust, Thomas quitted Rome in company with his

brethren Reginald of Piperno and Bartholomew

of Lucca.

* All three fell sick of malaria at Cardinal d'An-

nibaldi's residence in the Campagna. Thomas

THIRD PERIOD: AND DEATH. 91

speedily recovered, but his companions lay in grave

danger of their lives, so, drawing from his neck a <j*

relic of St. Agnes, he applied it with his blessing,

whereat they rose instantly in perfect health.

The home-coming of the Angelic Doctor to

Naples was a veritable triumph. Five miles be-

yond the city he was met by princes, senators,

professors, and the ever-clamorous youth of a

University; an immense concourse of citizens

filled the festive streets, roaring out their ovation,

while the reverend magistracy conducted him to

his convent of San Domenico Maggiore. Such

demonstrations deeply wounded his humility : for-

tunately for himself his habitual recollection of

thought kept him unconscious of the respectful

salutions which greeted his every appearance in the

public streets. Shortly after his arrival the Cardinal

Legate of Sicily and the Archbishop of Capua, a

former disciple, went to consult with him on matters

of grave moment : on being informed of their

arrival, the holy Doctor descended from his cell to

the open cloister, but so rapt in thought that he

passed them unnoticed. Presently his face bright-

ened, and they heard him exclaim : "I have hit

upon the solution I was looking for ". The Car-

dinal looked shocked for a moment at the apparent

discourtesy, until the Archbishop assured him that

such moments of abstraction were priceless to the

Church ; then, pulling Thomas by .the J^eeve^.he

roused him from his revepeTvThen only did the

man of God observe them, and in simple language7

t>


explained the mystery of his joyful rmenT*rVt was

merely because an excellent argument on a long-

debated subject occurred just then to my mind,

whose inner contemplation was expressed on my

joyful countenance."

His end was close at hand, like a goal in sight ;

the words from the world behind the veil were

vividly impressed on his memory :

" You will

speedily join us ". In his cell he prayed and wrote,

then passed forth to lecture in the University, in

whose Aula Maxima he delivered the treatises of

the Third Part of the " Summa Theologica," be-

ginning with the Incarnation. The pulpit and

chair from which he lectured were preserved for

centuries after, together with his statue in marble

in the outer atrium, where a marble slab bore this

inscription :—

" Before passing in, pay reverence to this statue,

and to the chair from which Saint Thomas pro-

nounced so many oracles to a countless throng of

students, for the glory and happiness of his age ".

Every morning he said mass at an early hour in

St. Nicholas Chapel, after which he heard another ;

he made his thanksgiving still vested in alb and

girdle, but when he served mass, he resumed the

black cappa. At the moment of consecration he

used his favourite ejaculation :" Tu Rex gloria,

Christe : Tu Patris sempiternus es Filius"

'. His Ves-

per hour of life had come, and he welcomed it :

during the year 1273 his raptures became more

and more frequent ;seldom he went out, except to


deliver the daily lecture. Now that the Commentaryon Boetius was finished, his philosophic labours

were ended. His pre-occupying theme now was

the Sacred Godhead. As revealed in prophecy, it

is the gist of his exposition of Isaiah : as revealed

in the Incarnation and Redemption, it is the burden

of the " Summa "in its concluding part. One night

his friend and secretary, Reginald, who occupied

the cell next to his, heard him talking in a loud tone

as if engaged in animated conversation, which was

the more remarkable since it was being carried on

in time of profound silence. After a while Thomas

came to his cell and bade him to get up."Light

the lamp, and bring the manuscript which I have

begun upon Isaiah :

"for a long space of time he

dictated rapidly, then told him to retire again to

rest. Reginald then threw himself upon his knees,

and besought him to tell with whom he had been

conversing. Finally, in God's dear name and in

the name of their friendship, he adjured him to

speak.u Dear son," replied the saint,

"for many

days past you have witnessed my affliction of spirit.

I had misgivings over a passage in the text I have

been commenting upon, so that I besought Godwith tears to give me understanding. Now this

very night God has had compassion upon me, send-

ing me His blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, whohave brought me complete light. And now, in

God's name, I command you to keep absolute silence

as to this fact, during my lifetime."

After the Commentary on Isaiah he wrote his

J


Exposition of the first fifty-one Psalms. Duringthe Lent of this year he preached every day in the

Cathedral upon the words," Hail full of grace, the

Lord is with thee" giving a summary of Mary's rare

privileges. The Compline hour at home filled

him with the deepest devotion : tears coursed freely

during the singing of the Lenten anthem :" Cast

us not off in the season of our old age, when our

strength shall fail us : Lord God, do not forsake us ".

As he was praying in the choir, he saw before him

the figure of Father Romanus, to whom he had

relinquished his chair in Paris." Welcome indeed,

dear brother," said he; "but when did you arrive

here ?" "I have passed from life," said the dead

friar," but I am permitted to appear on your ac-

count." St. Thomas was much overcome, but re-

covering self-possession, put these apt questions :

" How do I stand with God, and are my works

pleasing to Him ?" " Thou art in a good state,

and thy works are pleasing to God." " What then

of thyself?" asked the holy Doctor. "I am in

bliss," replied Romanus," but have passed sixteen

days in Purgatory."" Tell me then," cried Thomas,

" how do the Blessed see God, and do our acquired

habits abide with us in heaven ?" "

It is enough,"

answered Romanus,"

if I tell you that I see God :

ask me no more :' As we have Jieard, so have we

seen, in the city of the Lord of Hosts1

:"saying which

he vanished. The Angelic Doctor at once gave

voice to his conclusion :

" therefore it is by specular

vision that the Blessed see God ".

THIRD PERIOD : AND DEATH. 95

The servant of God was permitted at times to

penetrate men's hidden thoughts : one such instance

was when he rebuked a friar for leaving the choir

to indulge in gluttony. As he was pacing the

terrace conversing with a nobleman, the devil ap-

peared under the guise of a negro :

" How dare

you come here to tempt me !

" he shouted as he

advanced with clenched fist; whereupon the fiend

vanished.

The year 1273 was drawing to a close when the

pen dropped from his hand, before reaching his

fiftieth year. It was on St. Nicholas Day, the 6th

day of December, and in that saint's chapel, that he

had a long ecstasy while saying Mass ; what was then

communicated to him he never revealed, but from

that hour " he suspended his writing instruments," as

William de Tocco puts it. Frequently he had been

observed to be raised several cubits in the air,

while engaged in prayer. Directly the treatise on

the Eucharist was finished, some two months before

this, Fr. Dominic di Caserta and other friars saw

him thus uplifted in St. Nicholas Chapel shortly be-

fore Matins;but what filled them with awe was the

miraculous voice proceeding from the mouth of the

crucifix over the altar."Thomas, thou hast written

well of Me; what reward wilt thou have?" Towhich the holy man at once replied :

" None other

but Thyself, Lord ". Mid-way in the treatise of the

Sacrament of Penance, after finishing ninety Ques-

tions, of five hundred and forty-nine articles, he

lapsed into silence. To every appeal made by

A


superiors or brethren there came the same reply :

"I can do no more ". Fr. Reginald, his secretary

and confidant, urged him to resume his task.

"Father, why do you leave unfinished this great

work, which you have undertaken for God's glory

and the world's enlightenment ?"

But he could only

draw the reply :

"I can do no more. Such secrets

have been communicated to me, that all I have

written and taught seem to me to be only like a

handful of straw." Few could credit the report

that the great oracle would speak no more; none

imagined that the sun was setting, and in part

already below the horizon. Nobly has Dante sung

of him in his "Paradiso," Canto X :

—Such his wisdom upon earth,

Like to the Cherubim in lustre glowed.

One of the lambs of that blest flock was I

Which Dominic so leads in righteous ways,

They thrive, unless they fall by vanity.

The "Summa Theologica" was his legacy to the

Church. 1

Fr. Reginald was obliged to feed him now,

owing to his constant abstraction and frequent

raptures. Before the Christmas festival St. Thomas

'A study of this monumental work has wrought manyremarkable conversions, such as Rabbi Paul of Burgos, in

the fifteenth century ;Theobald Thamer, a disciple of

Melanchthon; the Calvinist, Duperron, afterwards Cardinal

and Archbishop of Sens. It has earned Luther's invectives,

as well as Bucer's menace: "Take away Thomas, and I

will destroy the Church ".


spent a week with his sister, the Countess of San

Severino, during which time they had but one long

conversation, and that was about the joys of life ever-

lasting." What can have happened to my brother,"

she inquired of Reginald of Piperno," that he is

so entranced, and will not speak to me ?" On his

return to Naples he fell ill of fever ; the attendant

informed the prior that during the night he per-

ceived a brilliant star enter by the window, and rest

for a long time on the sleeper's head.

In obedience to Pope Gregory's summons to

attend at the General Council of Lyons, which

was to open on 1 May, St. Thomas quitted Napleson 28 January, 1274, taking with him by papal

command his treatise"Against the Errors of the

Greeks ". He set out on foot, having for com-

panions the trusty Reginald and another friar ; so

preoccupied was he in thought, that, as they de-

scended from Terracina along the Borgo Nuovo

road, he struck his head violently against a fallen tree

and lay stunned for some time. From that moment

Reginald never left his side, but sought to occupyhis mind by agreeable conversation. "

Master, youare going to the Council on behalf of our order and

of the kingdom of Naples."" God grant that I

may see this great good accomplished," was the re-

ply. "And furthermore," pursued Reginald, "theywill make you a Cardinal, like Friar Bonaven-

ture, so that both of you will be of great service to

the Orders of which you are members." To this

came the prophetic reply, confirmed by the event :


"There is no state in which I can be of more use

to my Order than that in which I am at present :

rest assured that I shall never change my state of

life ". They halted for a few hours at Aquino ;

there he received a letter from the Abbot of Monte

Cassino, soliciting his interpretation of a point of

Rule, to which he returned a gracious reply. Owingto his failing strength, a mule was procured, uponwhich he rode to visit his niece, the Countess

Francesca Ceccano at Maienza Castle. There he

fell ill, and could take no food; it was now the

season of Lent, and, since he would not break the

law of abstinence, the doctor begged of him to say

if there was any kind of food he could relish."I

have several times eaten in France a kind of fish

called herring," said he ;

" but it is rare and very

dear in these parts." His physician, John de

Guido, sought vainly for the fish, until chancing to

meet a fisherman coming from Terracina, he found

some herrings at the bottom of a creel of sardines.

Then Reginald coaxed him to eat some of the her-

rings." From whence do they come? "

asked the

holy Master. "It is God who has sent them," was

the reply ; but all the same he would not partake of

them, for fear of indulging in a delicacy. He tarried

five days in Maienza Castle, and was able to say

mass twice ; the Abbot and some of the Cistercians

from Fossa Nuova Abbey came to pay their respects.

Thomas was now extremely ill, but persisted in ful-

filling his obedience by proceeding onwards to the

Council. Once more he mounted upon the mule,


and the little party of ten moved slowly on to the

Abbey, just seven miles away. Reverently they

lifted him and carried him at his request into the

church, for his last visit to the Blessed Sacrament :

after a short prayer he was again taken up and

carried through the cloisters to the Abbot's own

apartments. Reginald had besought him not to quit

Maienza Castle, where he could have every remedy

and attention, but the saint would not listen to the

proposal." If the Lord wishes to take me, it is

better that I should be found in a religious house

than in the establishment of the laity." He entered

Fossa Nuova Abbey on 10 February; as he was

borne through the cloisters he uttered the saying of

the Psalmist :M This is my rest for ever : here I

shall dwell, for I have chosen it"(Psalm cxxxi. 14).

The good Cistercians lavished every attention upon

him, cutting and carrying faggots for the fire.

"Whence comes this honour," he cried, in distress

of humility," that holy men should carry wood for

my fire ! Whence comes it that God's servants

should wait upon me, and carry a burden so far,

which must be painful to them !

"Very speedily

the tidings reached Naples that his dissolution was

at hand ;soon the Abbey was thronged with nobility

and clergy and brethren, importuning to see him

but once again. Among the Friars Preachers came

his younger brother Rayner, who afterwards became

Archbishop of Messina in Sicily.1

1 The Bullarium Ordinis Praedicatorum, Tome II, gives

him among the prelates promoted by Pope Honorius IV.

ioo ST. THOMAS AQUINAS.

During an interval of the intermittent fever the

Cistercians besought him to dictate an exposition

of the Canticle of Canticles. " Give me St.

Bernard's spirit, and I will do so," said he.

Touched by their kindness, he complied : supportedon his bed, he dictated the Commentary as Reginald

read each succeeding verse, while eager hands com-

mitted it to writing. This, let it be observed, was

his second exposition of Solomon's Song ;it is

entitled "Sonet vox tua," whereas the first is en-

titled" Salomon inspiratus ". This second work

must be accepted rather as the fruit of his piety

than of his learning. His biographer, William de

Tocco, makes this observation on the fact :

"It

was fitting that the great Doctor, now about to be

released from the body, should finish his teaching

by the Canticle of Love between Jesus Christ and

the faithful soul ". The last words dictated were a

passage from St. Paul, so fully realized in himself:" Our conversation is in heaven : for in every place

we are unto God the good odour of Christ ". On

coming to the eleventh verse of the seventh chapter—"Come, my beloved, let us go forth into thefields"

he swooned away, for his end was near. As the

lamp of vitality was burning low, he received the

" Frater Raynerius de Aquino, germanus frater Doctoris

Angelici S. Thomae, Archiepiscopus Messanus, Messina

in Sicilia." See also Bernard Guidonis, de Episcopis

Siciliae ; Cavalerius, de Episcopis Ord. Praed., Tom. I, p. 46,

no. cxxxv ; Stephanus Sanpayo, ex. MSS. Archivii Caenobii

Neapolitani S. Dominici.


last anointing after confessing to Fr. Reginald.

The Abbot then brought him the Sacred Viaticum,

while the brethren knelt around. Upborne in

Reginald's arms thejlying saint made this protesta-

tion of faith :

" If in this world there be any know-

ledge of this mystery keener than that of faith, I

wish now to use it to affirm that I believe in the

real presence of Jesus Christ in this Sacrament,

truly God and truly man, the Son of God, the Son

of the Virgin Mary. This I believe and hold for

true and certain. This faith is in my heart, and I

profess it with my lips, just as the priest has pro-

nounced it."

To Fr. Reginald it seemed impossible that St.

Thomas should die thus early, when only entering

upon his fiftieth year, so he used every art to rouse

him, especially by dwelling on the great work which

was before him in the coming Council, and of the

sure honours which awaited him. Then with dyingbreath the holy Doctor made his last reply :

" Myson, keep yourself from harbouring any such

thoughts, or from troubling yourself in this matter.

What used to be at one time the object of mydesires, is now a matter of thanksgiving. What I

have ever been asking of God He now grants to

me this day, in withdrawing me from this life in

the same state in which it pleased His mercy to

place me. Without a doubt I might have made

further progress in learning, and have made my learn-

ing to be more profitable to others, by sharing with

them what has been manifested to me. But the


infinite goodness of my God has let me know, that

if, without any merit of my own, I have received

more graces and lights than other Doctors who

have lived a long while, it is because the Lord

wished to shorten the days of my exile, and to take

me the sooner to be a sharer in His glory, out of

a pure act of mercy. If you love me sincerely, be

content and comforted, since my own consolation

is perfect."

After receiving the holy Viaticum he closed his

eyes, and was silent for a short time, then repeated

aloud his devout Rhythm—Adoro Te devote latens deitas

Quae sub his figuris vere latitas.

He uttered this Divine song to the finish, and

yielded up his soul in the early morning of 7

March, 1274.

Photo. Alhiari.

ALTAk-PiECE by <;up:rcino, in the chapel okST. THOMAS AQUINAS, CHURCH OF ST. DOMINIC,

BOLOGNA

PART IV: THE NIGHT OFREST.

" And night shall be my light in the fullness of

my delights."—Psalm cxxxvm, n.

CHAPTER IX.

MIRACLES AND CANONIZATION

The holy body was reverently carried beyond the

cloister for the consolation of the Countess Fran-

cesca and female friends, after which it was laid

out in the choir, with the face exposed. A great

concourse of the faithful flocked to the church ;

such as were not permitted to enter the chancel

touched the coffin with olive branches, which

they kept as relics. The Requiem Mass was sung

by the Bishop of Terracina, who was a Franciscan,

in the presence of the Abbot and Cistercians, the

Friars Preachers and Friars Minor. Fr. Regi-

nald of Piperno pronounced the funeral dis-

course, broken with sobs, as he removed the veil

which had concealed a life of consummate holiness.

At its conclusion he made formal protest that he

103

io4 ST. THOMAS AQUINAS.

only left the body until further arrangements should

be made by the Master General of the Order.

Then, amid a universal wail, the earthly shrine of

Thomas Aquinas was removed, and buried in a

vault under the high altar. When tidings of his

death reached Lyons, the Pope and Cardinals were

filled with profound grief ; the Holy Father ordered

his treatise "Against the Errors of the Greeks "to

be sent on to the Council. The saying of Eliphaz,

recorded in Job v. 26, was realized in St. Thomas." Thou shalt enter into the grave in abundance, as a

sheaf of wheat which is brought in its season ".

The Cistercians of Fossa Nuova saw a great

light over the Abbey for three days, which passed

away at his death. The same marvel was beheld

over the Dominican priory at Cologne. At the mo-

ment of his death one of the Cistercians engagedin prayer in the Abbey church saw St Thomas's

soul mount to heaven like a radiant star.

At the same moment Master Albert in Cologneturned to Fr. Albert of Brescia, exclaiming with

tears: "My son in Christ, Thomas of -Aquino,

the light of the Church, is dead, as God has re-

vealed to me. He was the world's flower and

glory, and has rendered superfluous the writings of

Doctors who shall come after him."

At Anagni, Fr. Raymund Maturi, while asleep

a few nights after this, had a vision in which he

saw St. Thomas, duly vested, proceed to the altar

and say mass. What struck him as singular was

the fact that his right eye appeared to be larger than

MIRACLES AND CANONIZATION. 105

the other. The saint explained the wonder, with

these words :

"My son, the knowledge which I

enjoy in heaven is greater than what I had on earth,

just as my right eye is greater than my left one ".

Fr. Paul of Aquila beheld this vision while pray-

ing in the church of San Domenico at Naples. Hesaw Thomas seated in his professorial chair, teaching

a crowd of disciples. Presently St. Paul appeared

with a number of the saints, who conversed fa-

miliarly with him. He distinctly heard Thomas

ask St. Paul if he had rightly interpreted his Epistles,

whereat the Apostle replied :

"Yes, so far as any-

one in the mortal body can understand them;but

come away with me, and I will conduct you to a

place where you will have clearer understanding

of all things ". Then grasping the holy Doctor byhis cloak, St. Paul led him away. Then Fr. Paul

shouted aloud :

" Alas ! Alas ! Alas ! our Doctor

is taken from us !

"

Fr. Albert of Brescia, a professor at Cologne,

poured out many and frequent prayers, especially

to the Blessed Virgin and to St. Augustine, that he

might ascertain the Angelic Doctor's degree of glory.

As he was kneeling before the altar, he beheld two

figures before him, one wearing a Mitre, and the

other clad in the Dominican habit : they were St.

Augustine of Hippo and Fr. Thomas Aquinas. St.

Thomas's habit was resplendent with precious stones,

while on his head he bore a crown of gold and

diamonds. From his neck there hung two chains,

pne of gold and one of silver ; on his breast was a


large carbuncle stone flashing rays of light like a sun.

Then the figure with the mitre addressed him.

"Why are you astonished, Fr. Albert? God has

heard your prayer. I declare to you that I am

Augustine, a Doctor of the Church, sent to acquaint

you of the glory of Thomas Aquinas, who is reign-

ing with me. He is my son, because he followed

the teaching of the Apostle, and my own, and he

has illumined the Church with his learning. This

is signified by the precious stones with which he is

adorned. The shining jewel on his breast denotes

the uprightness of intention with which he defended

and proclaimed the Faith : the other jewels represent

the books and writings of all kinds which he com-

posed. Thomas is my equal in glory, but surpasses

me by the aureola of Virginity."

Eleutherius, a Franciscan theologian of repute,

was also favoured with a vision. He beheld the

Mother of God seated in glory, while beneath stood

St. Francis with St. Thomas, whose cappa was

studded with stars. Pointing to St. Thomas, the

Seraphic Father spoke thus to Eleutherius :

" Con-

fide in this man, for his teaching shall never pass

away ".

God revealed the saint's glory by very manymiracles, ninety-six of which were duly attested,

and submitted as evidence for his canonization.

While his body lay exposed in the Abbey <Choir,

the Subprior, John de Ferentino, who was com-

pletely blind, placed his eyes against those of the

saint, and instantly saw. The holy Doctor's cell in


Naples became a resort of pilgrims, one of whom,the renowned Egidius Romanus, uttered the phrase :

"I am come to adore in the place where his feet

have stood ". Master Albert of Cologne could

never hear his name mentioned without breaking

into tears. Learning that his doctrine was im-

pugned in Paris, although over 80 years of age, he

proceeded thither on foot with Hugh de Lucca in

1276, and defended St. Thomas's teaching warmlybefore the University. "What a glory it is," he

exclaimed, "for the living to be praised by the

dead !

"After representing the saint as being en-

dowed with life while all others were covered with

the shades of death, he poured forth a splendid

eulogy of his doctrines as resplendent with ortho-

doxy and piety, and declared himself ready to meet

any opponent. He did the same at Cologne, de-

claring kthat by his writings Thomas had laboured

for all to the end of time.

Owing to the pressure of Church affairs of graver

importance, little beyond collecting of evidence

was done towards the canonization under the brief

pontificates of the Dominican Popes, Blessed In-

nocent V, and Blessed Benedict XI. Innocent

spoke of him in terms of no common praise :

" The

teaching of this Doctor beyond all others has fitness

of terms, manner of expression, and soundness of

opinions ; so that he who holds it will never swerve

from the path of truth : while, on the contrary, he

who attacks it must always be suspected ". Benedict

invariably styled him :" My Master ; my Doctor ".

8


The solemn process of canonization was begunin 13 18, promoted by Robert, King of Sicily, and

supported by petitions from the Universities, the

hierarchy, clergy, and the Order of Preachers. The

official testimonies to be presented to the Popeat Avignon were entrusted to Friars William de

Tocco and Robert de Benevento ; as they were

proceeding to France by sea, a great storm arose,

and the ship was being carried towards the rocks,

when they prayed aloud to St. Thomas to preserve

them; the wind then veered round, and they

reached land safely. On delivering up the docu-

ments, Pope John XXII accepted them eagerly,

and thus addressed the prelates and friars :

" Wedo not doubt that Br. Thomas is already glorious

in heaven, his life having been saintly, and his

doctrine miraculous". Three days later, in Con-

sistory, he again reverted to it. "Venerable

Brethren : We deem it a great glory for ourselves

and for the whole Church, to inscribe this servant

of God in the catalogue of the saints." The decree

was then read introducing the cause of canoniza-

tion, and three prelates appointed as Commissioners

to examine the evidence of miracles ;these were

Humbert, Archbishop of Naples; Angelo, Bishopof Viterbo, and Pandulf, an Apostolic Notary.

Heaven now aided the cause by striking miracles.

The Archbishop of Naples was suffering from an

incurable ulcer: he now commended himself to

the saint's intercession before retiring to rest, and

in the morning it was gone, leaving only a red


mark. The Bishop of Viterbo fell ill of a violent

fever, and lay at the point of death : he also

prayed with confidence to the Angelic Doctor,

slept peacefully, and awoke in perfect health. The

same thing happened to Matthew, the chaplain of

the Archbishop of Naples. Two further Commis-

sions sat, at Naples and at Fossa Nuova, to sub-

stantiate the evidence of miracles. While these

reports were being examined at Avignon, another

singular miracle was wrought by the saint's inter-

cession. Mary d'Arnaud, the Pope's niece, lay at

the point of death from dropsy, so the Holy Father

sent her the last blessing by the Bishop of Lodevi.

It so chanced that the Bishop was a Dominican,

who recommended her to have recourse to St.

Thomas. She did so fervently, and during the

night saw some one draw nigh to her bed, whomshe took to be the Bishop.

" Do you wish to be

cured ?"asked the visitor.

"I am not the Bishop,

but Brother Thomas Aquinas, to whom you have

had recourse : fulfil the vow you have made, and

you will recover." In the morning she found her-

self in perfect health.

Three Dominican Cardinals completed the final

stages of the process with zeal and fervour : these

were Nicholas Aubertin, Nicholas de Freauville,

and William de Godieu.

The day appointed for St. Thomas's canoniza-

tion was 18 July, 1323. The preliminary cere-

mony began in the Dominican Church in Avignonon the day before, in the presence of Pope John

8*

no ST. THOMAS AQUINAS.

XXII, the Cardinals, very many Archbishops and

Bishops, King Robert of Sicily, his mother Queen

Mary, many princes, nobles, and ambassadors.

The Pope pronounced a grand eulogium of the

saint's works and merits, grounded on this text :

" This is a day ofgood tidings : if we hold our peace,

and do not tell it to the morning, we shall be charged

with crime : come, let us go and tell it in the King's

court"

(4 Kings vn. 9).

King Robert of Sicily, a relative of the saint,

then gave an address, showing how St. Thomas

had merited the honour bestowed, because he had

been, and would ever continue to be, "a burning

and a shining light" (St. John V. 35).

The Archbishop of Capua followed with a pane-

gyric, who was succeeded by Fr. Raymund Bequin,

the Master of the Sacred Palace;further orations

were delivered by the Archbishop of Aries, the

Bishops of London, Winchester, and others.

On the morning of 18 July the Pope had the

Bull of canonization read, assigning 7 March for

the feast, after which he sang the votive mass of

St. Thomas in the Cathedral of Notre Dame des

Doms, and pronounced another eulogium." His

doctrine was not other than miraculous," cried the

Pontiff. "He has enlightened the Church more

than all other Doctors, and more profit can be

gained in a single year by the study of his works,

than by devoting a lifetime to that of other theo-

logians. He has wrought as many miracles as he

has written Articles."

TRANSLATIONS OF HIS RELICS. in

CHAPTER X.

TRANSLATIONS OF HIS RELICS.

From the day of his departure, petitions were ad-

dressed to the Holy See for the privilege of

possessing his incorrupt body : the King of Sicily

and the Counts of Aquino and San Severino did so

by title of kinship, the Universities of Paris and

Naples by reason of his services rendered in life,

and his own Order by right of sonship. The Cis-

tercians of Fossa Nuova, however, kept their treas-

ure for close upon a century ; since their church

had become a sanctuary renowned for miracles,

they refused to part with what Providence had sent

them.

In October, 1274, Abbot James and two monks

secretly removed the body to St. Stephen's Chapelin the cloister, for which the saint rebuked them

in a dream : incautiously they opened the coffin,

whereupon a marvellous perfume exhaled which

penetrated the cells and church, and the deceit

practised was exposed. All saw him as if but re-

posing in sleep : as they carried him back to the

church a marvellous light shone around. Abbot

Peter translated the body to a befitting tomb in the

choir in 1279, situated on the Gospel side of the

high altar. The right hand, still perfectly intact

and giving forth a delightful odour, was cut off in

1284 and bestowed on his sister the Countess of

San Severino, who placed it in a silver reliquary :

H2 ST. THOMAS AQUINAS.

her son, Thomas, afterwards gave it to the Domini-

cans of Salerno.

Early in the year 1304, in consequence of a

report that Pope Benedict XI meant to restore the

remains to the Friars Preachers, the Cistercians

amputated the head and placed it in a tabernacle

behind the choir; the body, still exhaling the same

fragrance, they deposited in a massive chest for

secret concealment. It was privately conveyed to

the Chapel of the Count of Fondi, another kinsman

of the holy Doctor. The Lord of Piperno, who was

at feud with him, resolved on carrying off the treas-

ure, so as to extort a heavy ransom. Philip, Kingof Sicily, now sent an embassy of bishops and

nobles, together with a great donation of gold, in

order to secure the holy remains, alleging his claim

of descent from the Aquinos : but the Count of

Fondi would not deliver them up. Years went

past, until St. Thomas admonished the Count that

his relics were not in their proper place. His

mother, who had been healed at his intercession,

was praying with the Bishop of Fondi before the

great chest, when both beheld him emerge as a

living man, and after walking for a short time in

silence, laid himself down again to rest. In con-

sequence of this, the Count resigned the bodyto the Dominicans of Fondi, who placed it in their

church. Here, for the second time, St. Thomas

came forth visibly before Father Raymund. The

Cistercians addressed a complaint to Pope Urban

V, who ordered an investigation to be made as to

BODY OF ST. THOMAS AQUINAS (IN CHASSE ABOVE ALTAR),REMOVED FROM DOMINICAN CHURCH AT THE REVOLU-TION TO THE CHAPEL OF THE HOLY GHOST, CHURCH

OF ST. SERNIN, TOULOUSE.

TRANSLATIONS OF HIS RELICS. 113

the respective claims of the two Orders; the rights

of the Friars Preachers were warmly urged by the

Queen of Sicily, the Count of Aquino, and the

Dominican Cardinals. The Father General, Elias

of Toulouse, then went direct to the Pope." You

come at the right time," said Urban;

"it is you

who stole the body of St. Thomas." "Holy Father,"

answered Elias, "he is our brother and our flesh."" And where then have you ordered it to be depos-ited ?

"pursued the Pontiff. "

Nowhere, Most HolyFather : that shall be as you decide." Nothing was

then decided ; within a few days the Court movedto Montefiascone, at Whitsuntide, whither Father

Elias followed on Corpus Christi Day."Holy

Father," said he,"to-day's solemnity reminds me

that St. Thomas composed the Office of the Blessed

Sacrament by order of Pope Urban. Since youbear the same name, I beseech you to grant to the

Saint the honour he deserves, and that his bodyshall rest among his brethren, who will reverence

him more than any others." Raising his voice, the

Pope gave solemn sentence. uBy the authority of

our Lord Jesus Christ, of the blessed ApostlesPeter and Paul, and our own, I give and grant to

you, the Master General, and to the Order of Friars

Preachers, the body of St. Thomas Aquinas, a

religious of this Order, to be placed at Toulouse, or

Paris, as shall be decided by the General Chapteror the Master General. In the name of the Father,

and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." All present

then answered "Ament" Next day the Pope

ii4 ST. THOMAS AQUINAS.

fixed upon Toulouse, as being the cradle of the

order. Learning that the head was still at Fossa

Nuova, he continued : "And I also give you St.

Thomas's head, that it may be translated with

the body ".

On 4 August, 1368, the head and body were laid

in the papal chapel at Montefiascone, and solemnlydelivered over to the Master General's keeping.The relics reposed for a month with the Dominican

Sisters at Prouille, and many were the miracles

wrought on the way. On 28 January, 1369, theywere solemnly conveyed to the Dominican Church

in Toulouse by Louis Duke of Anjou, many pre-

lates, and a concourse of 150,000 persons. Thefestival of his Translation became a day of preceptfor the diocese. His right arm was bestowed on

Paris University, and was placed by King Charles

in the Dominican Church, in St. Thomas's Chapel ;

at the Great Revolution it was conveyed to Rome,and now rests in the Minerva Church. The chief

bone of his left arm was given to his brethren in

Naples, who transferred it to the Cathedral in

1603.

In 1628 a magnificent shrine, with altars at the

four sides, was erected in Toulouse. At the Great

Revolution it was thrown down, and the remains,

draped with the Republican flag, conveyed for

safety by the Constitutional clergy to an obscure

corner in St. Sernin's crypt. They were exposedfor veneration in 1805 ; the sacred head was en-

closed in a new reliquary in the year 1852. On

EPILOGUE. 115

24 July, 1878, the Archbishop of Toulouse, Mon-

seigneur Desprez, after judicial verification of the

relics, enclosed them in a superb sarcophagus of

gold and silver.

EPILOGUE.

COMMENDATIONS OF HIS DOCTRINE.

In the Council of Trent, Master John Gallio de

Burgos eulogized his writings :

" The name of the

Angelic Doctor, already so renowned throughoutthe Christian world, will be held in still higher

veneration by posterity from the honour and cultus

which you have been pleased to bestow upon himhere. St. Thomas had not the honour of assisting

at a General Council during his lifetime, but he still

lives on after death. He is present with you in the

spiritual treasures of his writings, bequeathed to

you as a rich heritage. In this sense we can rest

assured that no Council has ever been held in the

Church since his blessed death, at which the holyDoctor has not been present, and has not been

consulted."

Pope St. Pius V proclaimed him Doctor of the

Church in the year 1567. The Vatican Council

of 1870 likewise placed his "Summa" on the

altar.

On 4 August, 1879, Pope Leo XIII publishedthe Encyclical

" sEterni Patris" dwelling on the

importance of basing Christian dogma on sound

"6 ST. THOMAS AQUINAS.

Philosophy. "Amongst the Scholastic Doctors,the Prince and Master of all, Thomas Aquinas,shines with incomparable splendour. Enriched

with all Divine and human sciences, justly com-

pared to the sun, he reanimates the earth by the

bright rays of his virtues, while filling it with the

splendour of his doctrine. Distinguishing accu-

rately between reason and faith, he unites them in

the bonds of perfect concord, while preserving the

rights and maintaining the dignity of each. So

then, reason, upborne on the wings of Thomas, can

soar no higher, while faith can obtain from reason

no more numerous and efficacious helps than those

furnished by Thomas." We cannot wonder then at the immense enthu-

siasm of former ages for the writings of the AngelicDoctor. Nearly all the founders and legislators of

Religious Orders have ordered their subjects to

study the doctrine of St. Thomas,. and to keep to it

religiously : they have provided beforehand that no

one amongst them should depart with impunity,even in the least point, from the teaching of so great

a man."

Another Brief followed on 4 August, 1880." In virtue of our supreme authority, for the gloryof Almighty God, and the honour of the Angelic

Doctor, for the advancement of learning and the

common welfare of human society, we declare the

Angelic Doctor, St. Thomas Aquinas, Patron of all

Universities, Academies, Colleges, and Catholic

EPILOGUE. 117

Schools : and we desire that he should be venerated

and honoured as such by all."

O Thoma, Iaus et gloria

Praedicatorum Ordinis,

Nos transfer ad cselestia

Professor sacri Numinis.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

J. V. de Groot. " Het. Leven van den H. Thomas

van Aquino." Utrecht, 1882.

P. Mandonnet. " Des Merits authentiques de S.

Thomas d'Aquin." Fribourg, 19 10.

A. Touron. " La Vie de S. Thomas d'Aquin, Cri-

tique sur les CEuvres." Paris, 1741.

Natalis, Alexander. "Opuscula Apologetica pro

doctrina S. Thomse Aquinatis." Paris, 1680.

J. de Gerson, Chancellor of Paris. MEpistola ad

studentes Collegii Navarrensis de doctrina S.

Thomae Aquinatis."

B. de Rubeis. " Dissertationes in singula opera D.

Thomas Aquinatis." Venice, 1740.

R. B. Vaughan." Life and Labours of S. Thomas

of Aquin." Hereford, 187 1.

" Bullarium Ordinis Prsedicatorum," to the eight-

eenth century, gives thirty-eight Constitutions

of eighteen Popes, extolling the writings of S.

Thomas." Analecta Ordinis Praedicatorum," Rome. Vol. II,

1895, gives the Apostolic Letters of Leo XIII

to the Universities of Lille, Baltimore, and

Louvain, commending S. Thomas's teaching118

BIBLIOGRAPHY. 119

and imposing it. Vol. III., 1897, Pope Leo's

Apostolic Letter of 30 December, 1892, to the

Jesuits, to the same effect. Vol. IV, the

Letter to the Friars Minor of 25 November,

1897.

J. Vielmus." De Divi Thomae Aquinatis Doctrina

et Scriptis." Parma.

Bollandists," Acta Sanctorum : Vita S. Thomae

Aquinatis," given under 7 March, embodyingthe life by Tocco.

The learned Commentators of his works : Cajetan,

Soto, Capreolus, Sylvius, Capponi, Medina,

Joannes a S. Thoma, Bannes, Billuart, and the

Theologi Salmanticenses.

The chief editions of the "Opera Omnia

": Rome,

I 57°J Venice, 1594; Antwerp, 1612; Paris,

1660; Venice, 1775; Parma, 1852-69; the

Leonine at Rome, 1882-1907 and still in pro-

gress.

JithU ©bstat

F. Innocentius Apap, O.P., S.T.M.

F. Robertus Bracey, O. P.

Revisores Ordinis

imprimatur :

F. Joannes Procter, O.P.

Prior Provincialis Anglia

#ihii <Db0tat:

Franciscus Canonicus WyndhamCensor Deputatus

Imprimatur :

Edmundus Canonicus SurmontVicarius Generalis Westmonasteriensis

saint thomas aquinas - opscriptis · saint thomasaquinas oftheorderofpreachers ......

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